WHAT MEDIA MALPRACTICE HAS CAUSED

It's come to this: 

Law enforcement officials from a New York region where a local paper published a map identifying gun owners say prisoners are using the information to intimidate guards.

Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco, who spoke at a news conference flanked by other county officials, said the Journal News' decision to post an online map of names and addresses of handgun owners Dec. 23 has put law enforcement officers in danger. 

"They have inmates coming up to them and telling them exactly where they live. That's not acceptable to me," Falco said, according to Newsday.

This is no small matter.  Being locked up is no barrier for a gang member who can have his fellow bangers on the outside use the map to find the guard and his family where they live.  That's women and children.  By its irresponsible actions, the Journal News has literally placed more children in harm's way.  How on earth is this justified? Except, apparently, that as members of families that own guns they no longer deserve any protection from society.  That's the sick, twisted perspective of anti-gun fanatics like the ones running things at the Journal News.

Another important point that has been made over the past week is that in addition to outing legal gun owners to those who might wish them harm, this grotesque publicity stunt has left those homes in which there are no guns vulnerable to burglars and home invaders.  By highlighting where the guns are located, the newspaper has also highlighted where there are NO guns and, guess what?  That's priceless information for criminals looking for the softest targets.  Don't believe it?  Well, read what a career criminal has to say about it:

“That was the most asinine article I’ve ever seen,” said Walter T. Shaw, 65, a former burglar and jewel thief who the FBI blames for more than 3,000 break-ins that netted some $70 million in the 1960s and 1970s. “Having a list of who has a gun is like gold - why rob that house when you can hit the one next door, where there are no guns?

"What they did was insanity," added Shaw, author of "License to Steal," a book about his criminal career.

Consequently, people who were not on the list because they haven't owned guns previously now feel obliged to buy a gun in order to protect their families:

Aron Wieder (D-Spring Valley) called the publication of the list "irresponsible journalism" and said he now fears for his safety because the map broadcast that he does not have a gun license. At the news conference Friday morning, he handed a $150 certified check and a completed pistol permit application to Rockland County Clerk Paul Piperato.

"I never owned a gun but now I have no choice," Wieder said. "I have been exposed as someone that has no gun. And I'll do anything, anything to protect my family."

And in the face of a torrent of justifiable outrage, the fanatics at the Journal News not only said that they would not take down the current list, but would seek to add to it.

This is a long way from being over.  Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Here's an example of why criminals are so pleased with what the Journal News has done.  The criminal in this story wishes he'd known that there was a gun in the house!  Georgia Mother Shoots Home Intruder Five Times After Being Cornered in Attic.