Thanks to the passage of a new New York state law, The Journal-News has removed the map of gun permit holders from its website — but don’t expect an apology.
In a letter on the Journal-News website, the paper’s president and publisher, Janet Hasson, defended the newspaper’s publication of the information.
“Today The Journal News has removed the permit data from lohud.com,” she wrote. “Our decision to do so is not a concession to critics that no value was served by the posting of the map in the first place.”
Hasson said the paper removed the map because the information could quickly become outdated and because of the passage of the new laws. In a shorter statement, reported by POLITICO, the publisher said the removal of the gun map was not required by the new law, but was doing so “complies with its spirit.”
“Sharing as much public information as possible provides our readers with the ability to contribute to the discussion, in any way they wish, on how to make their communities safer,” she added. “We remain committed to our mission of providing the critical public service of championing free speech and open records.”
The gun map is suspected to have played a part in at least two home break-ins — resulting in the theft of two guns and two pistol permits from one of the homes.
A snapshot of the map will remain on the Journal-News website “to remind the community that guns are a fact of life we should never forget,” according to Hasson.
