Not-so-Concealed Carry

An editor in Roanoke, Virginia decided that publishing the names and addresses of every concealed carry permit holder in the state of Virginia would be an important public service. McQ at QandO had this to say:

I'd suggest that any criminal accessing the database isn't going to seek out those with concealed carry permits in order to engage in crime against them. Instead, a criminal is more likely to ensure the person whose house he's going to burgle isn't carrying.

Unfortunately this isn't the case. Few people are going to try to take on a concealed carry holder in a fair fight. If you are going to commit violent crime, you do it against someone who can't fight back. That much is true. But most criminals in heavy concealed carry states are starting to shy away from violent crime for that very obvious reason. Instead they're moving to property crime like breaking and entering instead.

So you have your list of gun owners. Now all you need to do is wait until no one is home and you've got a big score. It isn't hard to tell when no one is home either. You just pretend you're a delivery guy or taking a survey and knock on their front door. If no one answers, you go around back casing the joint as you go. Guns are a wonderful thing to steal too. They're small, light, and easily liquidated on the black market because criminals all want them. Most guns used in crimes have in fact been stolen from law abiding gun owners somewhere. Which means that yes, a publicized list of gun owners is a list of possible B&E targets.

Oh and a bunch of those people took out permits to protect themselves while already under threats of violence from someone. Maybe they have an abuse ex-boyfriend or spouse. Maybe the local street thugs too a dislike to them. Maybe they're ex-cops, etc. Many of the people on this list don't want to be found and this newspaperman just told everyone where they live. I mean how would he like it if someone widely publicized his address after what he did?

Oddly enough, I do want to be able to find names and identifying numbers for concealed carry holders. Why? Because it lets the public audit the state concealed carry system. This is especially true in states with "may issue" carry like Maryland or Delaware. Audits of permit holders in the tight-fisted states generally show that to get a concealed carry permit you have to be a powerful politician, a major campaign contributor, or know somebody in the system. Generally poor people that need to defend themselves don't make the list. You can't find out about this corruption in the system without access to the names in order to compare to lists of campaign contributors, family members, etc.