Rockland County Clerk Paul Piperato pleaded with the Journal News editorial board not to publish the largely inaccurate database of pistol permit holders’ addresses
Dylan Skriloff
Rockland County Times
1/4/2013
The intentions of the Journal News’ editorial board in publishing a highly controversial “interactive gun map” are further occluded by an inconvenient fact.
According to Rockland County Clerk Paul Piperato, in Rockland County a large number of the names and addresses on the map are not even correct.
Piperato said, “I’d figure about 25 percent of the addresses are not accurate.”
He explained that when persons change their address or pass away it is supposed to be reported to the County Clerk’s office, but the county has no means to vigorously enforce this regulation. Thus pistol permit and other permit registries are not reliably accurate as a source of addresses in Rockland.
The Journal News editorial board’s entire justification for the interactive map has been that it shows where potentially dangerous guns are in the neighborhood, yet they have been aware all along that the map is grossly inaccurate. Rockland residents have reported that the information on the gun map is sometimes more than 20 years outdated…
The article continues at the Rockland County Times.
Related: Connecticut lawmaker wants names of gun owners to be made public
Lawmakers in Connecticut – still stunned from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting – are moving forward with legislation that could make public the names and addresses of 170,000 handgun permit holders in the state.
The measure, introduced by state Rep. Stephen Dargan, is the latest effort to clamp down on guns in Connecticut. If passed, the bill would reverse a 20-year decision by state lawmakers to keep the personal information confidential. The legislation would make the information fair game under the state’s Freedom of Information Act…