The Roanoke Times Removes Database of Handgun Permit HoldersMarch 12, 2007 — The Roanoke Times has decided to remove the online database of registered concealed handgun permit holders from its website.
The newspaper is requesting the Virginia State Police, which provided the information, verify the data.
“When we posted the information, we had every reason to believe that the data the State Police had supplied would comply with the statutes. But people have notified us that the list includes names that should not have been released,” said Debbie Meade, president and publisher of The Roanoke Times. “Out of a sense of caution and concern for the public we have decided to take the database off of our website.”
The database was posted on roanoke.com on Sunday as part of a New River Valley editorial page column about open records. This column, as well as others that will be published this week, is part of a special focus on Sunshine Week, a national initiative to raise awareness about open government and freedom of information.
No bomb at editorial writer's home
By Donna Alvis-Banks and Paul Dellinger
UPDATED 4:18 p.m.
The mysterious package that was delivered today to Roanoke Times editorial writer Christian Trejbal's home and prompted the closing of a Christiansburg street turned out to be full of blank mailing labels and cardboard mailers.
School Lane was closed, a state police bomb squad was called and at least some neighbors were evacuated after Trejbal, who attracted a deluge of criticism with a column about concealed carry firearms permits, found the package during a lunch-time trip home. Trejbal has received threats in the wake of his Sunday column, which celebrated open government and public records and was accompanied by an online database listing the about 135,000 Virginians who are licensed to carry concealed firearms. The information is available to anyone who inquires at county courthouses, or can be obtained on a statewide basis from Richmond.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/breaking/wb/108505
They seem to be a tad bit edgy, lol.
Looks as if it is lawsuit time again in the deep south.
Damn!
By the time I posted my response, trajbal cut off any more comments (I bet the skode hadn't planned on the firestorm he ignited!) without prior "approval".