Snowflakes in Hell

First we get an alert from the NRA about another barrage of hearing arranged by the usual suspects in Philadelphia. Then I pull up the Brady Homepage and notice a PATH graphic with link displayed prominently. Aside from the usual loads of bullshit like:

Under current law, a person can go into a gun shop and buy 10, 20, even 30 handguns without incident.

Except for the fact that the dealer has to fill out an ATF form and submit it to them inform them that they’ve made a sale of more than one handgun to an individual. Under Pennsylvania law, licensees are also required to inform the sheriff of the county the sale takes place in that he made a sale involving more than one handgun. So while PATH would love to have you believe you can just do this under the table without regulation, they would be deceiving you.

The advocates of one-gun-per month have never been able to offer up sound evidence that this type of trafficking, rather than more informal purchases through friends and family, is a significant source of crime guns. Considering the amount of ATF and state oversight that’s already in place on multiple gun sales, I find it difficult to believe it’s significant.  It should also be pointed out that Richmond, VA, in a state that already has a gun rationing law, has a much higher level of violent crime than Philadelphia.

It’s interesting to see what groups form PATH, which is your usual suspects in the Pennsylvania anti-gun movement, including Cease Fire New Jersey, who want to bring the Garden’s state’s wonderful gun control laws to Pennsylvania, so presumably we can have the same overall violent crime rate that they do.  Oh, but I forgot, we already do have pretty much the same crime rates.  Of course, some of New Jersey’s numbers are higher.  And they achieve all this without a major city like Philadelphia!

In the interest of encouraging young people to get into blogging, particularly those related to shooting sports, I’m adding Geek vs. World to the blogroll. Joseph is 15, and, much to the surprise of anti-gun folks everywhere, enjoys shooting, and has not yet shot himself or anyone else accidentally with a firearm. Hopefully he will continue to show that children and guns, with proper education and instruction, can coexist peacefully, and be fun for the whole family.

I’m very much against an individual’s name, address, or any other part of carry licenses that identify an individual being a matter of public record, but some info I think is good to have as public record. For instance:

1. Number of licenses issued by an authority
2. Number of licenses revoked by authority
3. Aggregated demographic info of license holders
4. Number of licenses denied
5. Crimes committed by license holders

I think all these things serve a legitimate public interest and so I have no problem with them being public. It’s mostly a matter of making sure people with guns that could be stolen, or people hiding from violent ex’s, who might be the reason they sought a license to carry in the first place, aren’t getting their information published in newspapers so the bad guys know exactly where to find them.

PA License to Carry information is not considered public record by Bucks County.

UPDATE: Still waiting to hear from Delaware County, Montgomery County, and the City of Philadelphia.   Chances are if none of them will release, no one else will either.   I might check with Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, because they issue more LTCs than any other jurisdiction in the country.

I mean, given that we’ve had Parker, and now a New Jersey court (frigging New Jersey!), saying the second amendment protects an individual right, the folks at the Brady Campaign and Violence Policy center have to be crapping in their pants.

UPDATE: The Brady’s seem to have noticed my fun at their expense, and commented that they aren’t really that worried:

Even the Parker decision — which is definitely regarded as out-of-step with precedent — allowed that “reasonable restrictions” would still be permitted under their new interpretation of the Second Amendment. So the things we actually advocate for (background checks, anti-trafficking laws, child-safety locks, law enforcement) aren’t impacted by the Parker ruling.

They are right about Parker still leaving a lot wide open, but you have to admit, for pro-second amendment decisions to be coming out of New Jersey is pretty startling, even to me. I can’t imagine that if an individual rights view is ultimately upheld, it will make things easier for them.

… it can happen anywhere. Satan called, and said it’s getting chilly.

Generally I’m in favor of government records being very transparent and freely available to the public.  I’m a big proponent of the Freedom of Information Act.  But I do believe the public interest is best served by keeping some information private.  I would not like to see IRS returns made a matter of public record, for many of the same reason I disagree with making gun licenses public record; it lets people who want to steal valuables or firearms know which houses have them.

I also think in may-issue systems, there’s a public interest in knowing whether licenses are being handed out as political favors to the connected and powerful, which I believe might override anyone’s privacy interest.  So if people in may-issue states wants privacy, pass shall-issue laws, and then I’ll be fine with keeping the records private, since I know that licenses are being handed out according to statutory criteria rather than based on the whim of a politician or bureaucrat.

A good example of how I think about privacy can be found in David Brin’s book The Transparent Society.  It’s a great book to read, and will change your ideas on privacy and open government.

Chester County is the county that issued my current PA LTC, so I was most interested in their response:

We do not disclose that information.

Cpl. Joe Kusnersyk
Chester County Office of Sheriff
17 N Church St.
West Chester, Pa. 19380

Kudos to the Chester County Sheriff’s office for keeping LTC holder information private.  I will have to contact Bucks County, who I have to renew with, as they are my current county of residence, to ensure they follow the same policy.