Rible Bill To Ban Gun Owner Info Introduced
Bill seeks to ban currently available public information on handgun permit holders
A bill that would prohibit the public release of names of gun permit holders has been introduced in the State Assembly, officials said.
Sponsored by Assemblymen Dave Rible and Ron Dancer, both R-Monmouth and Ocean, the bill seeks to restrict public access to the names and addresses of gun permit holders under the state’s Open Public Records law.
Rible, a Wall resident, previously has said he was opposed to the release of such information because it could prove potentially dangerous to law-abiding citizens, such as law enforcement officers.
The bill, A-3788, was introduced this week. It has not yet received a committee assignment.
“Disseminating personal information about those who have gun permits puts law enforcement officers and law-abiding citizens in harm’s way,” Rible said in a release.
The bill is in reaction to the recent publication of gun permit holders’ names and addresses in a New York newspaper.
The Journal News in White Plains, NY, published the article, “The Gun Owner Next Door: What You Don’t Know About the Weapons in Your Neighborhood,” which published the names and addresses of more than 30,000 handgun permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties. The article, which obtained the names and addresses from publicly available documents, also contained a map of the handgun permit holders.
The paper received widespread criticism for the move, and when the outrage became threatening, it hired armed guards to protect its main office and a bureau. Employees who felt unsafe at home were offered hotel rooms, at the paper’s expense.
Rible has compared the availability of gun owners’ information to that of lottery winners.
In December, the Assembly unanimously passed a bill that would allow state lottery winners to keep their identities private for up to one year. The state lottery commission, a state agency, collects the names and addresses of lottery winners, which are considered public records. The bill has not yet been taken up by the Senate.
“It’s okay to win the lottery and remain anonymous, but not for gun owners,’’ Rible has said. “It doesn’t seem right.”
charlie
1:54 pm on Friday, February 1, 2013
How about just a list of people beating the government with false disability claims. Or a list of people on welfare who aren't legal but have children born in America. Or
people getting Medicaid and SS without contributing while hardworking citizens have to be told all the money they put into the system is now considered an entitlement.
Nj Ghost
2:49 pm on Friday, February 1, 2013
I have an idea..... Since this is supposed to make children safer let's think of the chidren and publish a list of aborted babies and who murdered them....think of all the kids we'd save then....wow!!
Resident of Lacey
8:05 pm on Friday, February 1, 2013
I have to agree with Assemblymen Dave Rible and Ron Dancer on this one. If a list of firearms owners was made publicly accessible it would put more weapons in the hands of thieves. They could simply start off the nights activities by robing a home where they know there is a gun and then they will be armed for the rest of the trip. Yes I truly feel that it would be foolish to make this information public as it would provide easy access to firearms for criminals.
Nj Ghost
8:32 pm on Friday, February 1, 2013
Why would any idiot beak into a home when they know there is a gun in the house and the owner may just know how to use it?? But then again anyone who breaks into a home is a moron in the first place.
Resident of Lacey
7:56 am on Saturday, February 2, 2013
NJ Ghost, thank you for answering your own question :) Nowhere in my post did I ever say thieves are smart, they are willing to risk so much for so little return, if any at all. Even worse though is the fact that some of the gun owners may not even secure their home properly so the item of their desire would be confirmed on a public list and all they have to do is watch the place to see when a good time is to go collect the goods. Yes it is sad to have to worry about these sort of things when you consider all that is going on in the world today. Tighter firearms regulation will do nothing to stop the problems with guns in the wrong hands but will remove them from the right hands.
Nj Ghost
4:39 pm on Saturday, February 2, 2013
Res. I didn't mean to imply that you said that in the way you took it but I have heard the statement before and it stuck with me...... Infact if they broke into my home I would give them my gun(s). with the alarm and the dog barking...it will be a BLAST!! or two...And in fact i really don't care if they publish my name but I do respect the other gun owners not wanting thiers published. "Tren Hua" class of 66