A few weeks after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown Connecticut in December 2012, the Journal News, a paper serving Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties in New York, decided to publish an interactive map of the names and addresses of all gun owners in the area. The article was title"The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood," and published in January 2013. It received outcry from around the country because of the harm it put gun owners in the neighborhood in.
While the article is unfavorable by the public, The Journal News’ decision to publish a map of the gun owners in Westchester and Rockland counties as a result of the Sandy Hook shooting is both lawful and ethical. The Freedom of Information Law and freedom of the press portion of the first amendment allows The Journal News to publish this information. Information of gun-holders and people who have gun permits is open to the public, and therefore the reporters who published the article had the right to obtain and put together and publish a map of the locations.
The Published of the Journal News, Janet Hasson, defended the publication of the article. She said, "One of our roles is to report publicly available information on timely issues, even when unpopular. We knew publication of the database would be controversial, but we felt sharing information about gun permits in our area was important in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings."
I agree with Janet Hasson’s argument that the information about gun permits is important and was newsworthy during the time it was printed. The journalists involved with the story made the correct ethical and lawful decision to gather and put together the information, and The Journal News was right to publish it.
Ethically, I believe that this is an important issue and the journalists involved made the correct choices to publish the information. They should not have been harassed releasing public information that could potentially protect citizens in the communities they reported on. The news would not harm anyone, but instead create awareness of the number of gun-owners in residential communities in the area.
I agree that media have a right to publish public information, and especially gun ownership after the Sandy Hook shootings.
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