Firearms for sale at a gun show in the US
Firearms for sale at a gun show in the USReuters

A local New York newspaper has enraged a portion of its readers after publishing an interactive map that shows the names and addresses of thousands of residents who have handgun permits.

The online map was published by The Journal News along with an article under the headline: "The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood."

The newspaper obtained and published the names and addresses of pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties through a Freedom of Information Act request, justifying the decision to do so by pointing to the recent school massacre in nearby Newtown, Conn., and readers expressing concern regarding which of their neighbors might have firearms.

After publishing the controversial article, however, readers condemned the move, saying that the interactive map not only targets gun owners, but also elucidates to potential robbers the homes that do not hold guns.

"Do you fools realize that you also made a map for criminals to use to find homes to rob that have no guns in them to protect themselves?" one reader wrote on Facebook.

"You have just destroyed the privacy of these law abiding citizens and by releasing this list, you have equated them to that of sex offenders and murders," wrote another. "These are law abiding gun owners, they are no danger to anyone except for criminals. And with this information you have made them targets for both criminals and anti gun lobbyist who i am sure are going to treat them like monsters."

The newspaper, however, defended the decision to run the names in a written statement.

"The massacre in Newtown remains top-of-mind for many of our readers," the statement said. "In the past week, conversation on our opinion pages and on our website, LoHud.com, has been keenly focused on gun control.

"Our readers are understandably interested to know about guns in their neighborhoods. We obtained the names and addresses of Westchester and Rockland residents who are licensed to own handguns through routine Freedom of Information law public-records requests."

While the map shows the locations of pistol permit holders, it does not specify whether those shown actually own a weapon. Furthermore, since rifles and shotguns can be bought without a permit, such information was not included.