Disclosure

Recently I read two articles focusing on the decision of journalists in a Westchester newspaper to publish the names and addresses of people in their area who owned guns.  Some of the people named actually threatened the reporters and the publisher of the newspaper because of the publicity they received.

            David Carr, the media reporter for the Times, at first felt that the disclosure wasn’t that serious since this information was available for anyone who wanted to look them up in the county records.  But he then changed his mind and felt that the newspaper went too far because they didn’t really explain the motivation behind the revelations in the article.

            My question is this?  In suburban and rural areas people usually own their own homes and condos and may own guns for hunting or protection for their property and families.  How many of those families have children and how many of those children know how to use guns safely?

            In my neighborhood in Manhattan people mostly live in rentals or apartments in high rise buildings with hundreds of families.  Most of us don’t even know our neighbors by sight or name.  How would we feel if we knew that some of the tenants in our building kept guns in their apartments?  I know what happens when the police are notified when criminal suspects are apprehended and caches of guns and ammunition are found in their dwellings?  A couple of years ago an actor in my building who we all knew ended up committing suicide by shooting himself.  All of us were shocked when we read about it in the newspaper.  He was obviously very disturbed about his medical condition, but did he live in our building all those years with a gun in his desk drawer?

            It’s not the right to own a gun legally that I question.  It’s the proliferation of guns and ammunition everywhere in this country that frightens me.  It’s the suggestion that teachers and security officers in school be provided with guns to protect their schools that leaves me breathless in its stupidity.  It’s the fact that some people see gun control as a dictatorial conspiracy on the part of the government to take away their constitutional rights that boggles my mind!

            The mayor of the city of New York is a strong advocate of gun control throughout the nation and I applaud him for his leadership on this issue.  But he also wants the teachers union in the city to agree to contract that would allow the DOE to reveal the names of teachers whose students don’t score well on standardized tests.  He has already published lists of schools where some of those teachers work and has closed down schools which haven’t shown improvement on those citywide tests.  What if an irate parent visits a school and threatens a teacher?  Is the teacher safer if she has a gun in her desk?  I don’t think so.