How Dare You  #34

On Wednesday, the Bangor Daily News made a bold request under the freedom of information act to obtain the list of names and addresses of all individuals who hold a Maine concealed weapons permit. The reason they used was they wanted to measure the list against the people who have committed domestic violence, sexual assault and drug abuse. They made the request in a manner I feel they felt would fly under the radar and not rise to the level where Maine citizens would know that they had done so. Fortunately, their request was uncovered and reported, and many Mainers have voiced their outrage and opposition to their request, most notably on their web page under the comments section.
First, I don't generally write about politics. I prefer to talk about less stressful activities that you can partake in. However, when I learned of this diabolical attempt to obtain information using a less than credible approach to obtain that information, I was outraged. The Bangor Daily News knows full well that their request was made for a different reason. Many people who have voiced their outrage with the paper doing this have spoken about their concern for the safety of those people on that list, and for the unforeseen consequences of the papers action, should they be successful in obtaining it.
I understand that a number of Maine legislators have put forth a bill under an emergency preamble to prevent this request ,and others like it from being fulfilled. To those folks, I say thank you for at least helping to protect some sort of privacy that the media seems to want to exploit. Someone needs to protect us all from the underhanded tactics of a request such as this. I leave you with the text of the response of the Bangor Daily News when they learned that their request had been uncovered. Stop and think about it, if they are successful in getting this list and your name were on it, would you be happy in knowing that they may post the list in their newspaper where everyone could see it. Not to mention, those who might try to use the names on that list for their own personal gain? There is even a very good chance that by being on that list, you could end up with you and your family possibly being in danger.
Let’s voice our opposition to this sort of tactic. Contact your legislator and tell them that you support, LD 345, the bill now going through the Maine legislature that will prevent this information from being available.

BDN Explanation in Thursday, February 14 edition:

On Wednesday, the Bangor Daily News requested data from Maine police agencies regarding concealed weapons permits in Maine. I’d like to explain our thinking, and clarify our intent.

The BDN requested the records of concealed weapons permits as part of long-term reporting projects on domestic violence, sexual assault and drug abuse.

It always had been the BDN’s intent to request this information to support our reporting projects. However, the introduction of legislation to remove these permits from public records accelerated our timeline in doing so.

The BDN has never had any intention to release identifying information about permit holders, and said so in our request. We recognize how sensitive this information is, and made sure police agencies knew of this intent.

We believe the wholesale publication of permit holder information, as was done recently by a newspaper in New York, is irresponsible.

We intend to use this information about permits, along with other information sets we are gathering, to analyze possible correlations relevant to our reporting projects.

I regret the confusion our request has caused. We had hoped that by stating our intent right in our letters, we could have assuaged any concerns it could have caused.

Again, no identifying information about permit holders will be published, and no stories specifically about permit holders are planned.

Sincerely,

Anthony Ronzio

Director of News and New Media