From The New York Times
New York State’s new gun law seeks to restrict ownership of certain weapons. But it also restricts something else: access to previously public information about gun permits.
The new law, passed on Tuesday, requires that, for the next 120 days, no information about gun permit holders in a new statewide gun registration database is made available publicly, according to Robert Freeman, the executive director of the State Committee on Open Government. After that, gun permit holders will have the right to have their names and addresses removed from the database by contacting their local county clerks or police departments.
Legislators rushed to include this protection in its gun regulation proposal after the suburban newspaper The Journal News published on Dec. 23 the names and addresses of gun permit holders in Westchester and Rockland Counties, and put online a map showing the locations of the gun permit holders.
The article and map prompted outrage from gun owners, who said they felt they could be harassed or have their homes broken into.
