Fear that their jobs will be at risk thanks to anti-gun employers.
Fear that gun control groups will use the information to harass them.
And fear that they will be singled out and shamed in their communities.
"It's bad enough that private citizens are not allowed to defend themselves when they walk our dangerous streets," says Illinois State Rifle Association Executive Director Richard Pearson in preparation for a huge pro-gun rally in Springfield on Friday. "But now Attorney General Madigan willfully sets citizens up as targets for crime by releasing their personal information to anyone who asks for it."
Pro-gun Illinois politicians say the public has no right to the information, which the Illinois State Police have kept sealed for 40 years, and have introduced counter legislation to Madigan's.
But pro-disclosure activists say knowing whether a neighbor, daycare worker or the college kid sitting next your son or daughter is armed is very much their business!
Two years ago a similar flap occurred when the Memphis Commercial Appeal decided to publish a searchable base of state firearm permit holders, despite gun owner identity protection laws in states like Florida, Ohio and South Dakota that sealed names. The Appeal had found that 70 of 154 state permit holders had criminal records including Bernard Avery (arrested 25 times with a murder charge dismissed on mental competency) and Reginald Miller (a felon with 11 arrests). Who wouldn't want to know that? Even before Tucson?
But Chris Cox, then executive director of Illinois' NRA, wrote the newspaper and called the decision "dangerous" -- as if gun safety advocates and employers were armed instead of gun-owners . Hello?
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