Map: Where are the gun permits in your neighborhood?
From the post:
The map indicates the addresses of all pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties. Each dot represents an individual permit holder licensed to own a handgun — a pistol or revolver. The data does not include owners of long guns — rifles or shotguns — which can be purchased without a permit. Being included in this map does not mean the individual at a specific location owns a weapon, just that they are licensed to do so.
Data for all permit categories, unrestricted carry, premises, business, employment, target and hunting, is included, but permit information is not available on an individual basis.
To create the map, The Journal News submitted Freedom of Information requests for the names and addresses of all pistol permit holders in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam. By state law, the information is public record.
The mapping has provoked considerable discussion (35,153 Facebook recommendations as of December 27, 2012).
Several additional or alternative mappings come to mind:
- Mapping the addresses of people arrested for gun related violence and intersecting those addresses with the gun permit addresses.
- Mapping the addresses of people arrested for drug offenses and intersecting those addresses with the gun violence addresses.
- Or using a topic map to create more detailed maps of associations (political contributions?) and other data.
Who do you want to “out” and on what basis?
I found this following this post by Ed Chi, which in turn lead to a post by Jeremiah Owyang here, who remarks: “Perhaps one of the most controversial things I’ve seen in tech.”
I fail to see the “controversy.” The permit owners did in fact give their addresses as part of public records.
What part of not disclosing information you want to remain private seems unclear?