My Neighbor Has a Gun

 UPDATE #2  Well, I was on this yesterday (it's my crappy local paper, after all) but now everyone is covering, even NYT now, as
"debate" builds. 

UPDATE:  My new piece at The Nation on this.

Earlier:  That's what I discovered just now, thanks to an amazing mapping project carried out by my local--and usually quite unambitious--daily newspaper, the Journal News, which "covers" Westchester and Rockland counties just north of NYC.   Reporters got the names and addresses of everyone with a gun (not rifle) permit and mapped it using Google maps.  Zooming in you find your area and dots bring up the person with the permit over their home.

Only one on my short block is guy catty corner from me.  Someone  else on cross streets up and down the hill.  Scattered permits in my general area, probably much denser in a lot of other places.

The newspaper article also has an editor's note: "Journal News reporter Dwight R. Worley owns a Smith & Wesson 686 .357 Magnum and has had a residence permit in New York City for that weapon since February 2011," it states. 

Few newspapers have done this and those that have often stir up debate.  The Journal News defended its decision to print the names in a statement to ABC News, saying readers "are understandably interested to know about guns in their neighborhoods."  Objections usually include:  1) if bad guys check it out they can plot break-ins based on who doesn't (seemingly) have a legal gun, although might have rifle or illegal gun  2)  bad guys can target houses WITH guns, to steal them 3)  people named may get some kind of stigma 4) "You have judges, policemen, retired policemen, FBI agents — they have permits. Once you allow the public to see where they live, that puts them in harm’s way," Paul Piperato, the Rockland county clerk, told Worley.