Privacy Rights for Gun Permit Holders

The horrific events at Sandy Hook Elementary School may serve as a catalyst for dramatic change in American policymakers’ approach to gun control and mental health care; certainly, it sparked a nationwide discussion and some lawmakers have acted. Underlying the conversations about gun control, however, are concerns and actions, both legislative and judicial, about the privacy of gun permit holders’ data.

Today, a New York appellate panel ruled in favor of the NYPD in a lawsuit filed by The New York Times. The Times sought access to the NYPD’s electronic database of gun permit holders, which included the holders’ addresses. Using New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), The Times had already obtained the zip codes of those who have permits. The appellate panel reasoned that any more information than simply the zip codes (namely, home addresses) of permit holders failed to provide the public with any more information, invaded the holders’ privacy interests, and lacked a journalistic purpose.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg agrees, as a spokesperson responding to the decision said, “This is a common-sense decision. Publishing the home address of gun permit holders raises privacy and safety concerns for both gun owners and non-gun owners alike.” 

Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York state legislature appear to agree, as well. A suburban newspaper, The Journal News, raised a ruckus in December 2012 and January 2013 when it published an online map that indicated the names and addresses of pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties. (The map has since been taken down and replaced with a stationary map and Google “pins” showing approximate, non-"zoomable" locations of permit holders). Some of those who appeared on the map reported threats and extreme displeasure with personal information about their gun ownership being made public. Just over a month after the Sandy Hook shooting, Governor Cuomo signed the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Act of 2013 into law, and while the law put strict gun control regulations into place, it also reacted to the editorial choice by The Journal News. The law creates a new statewide gun permit database and prohibits disclosure of individuals’ names. Gun permit holders can also exempt disclosure of their data from county databases that maintain the information.

New York is not in the minority with its new law; the Sunlight Foundation reports that forty states plus D.C. treat gun permit data as private. And while states have the right to make such records private, the move by the state of New York has attracted criticism from First Amendment advocates. For example, Matt Waite, a professor at the University of Nebraska’s journalism school, told The New York Times that removing the data from public scrutiny means journalistic organizations “have no way of independently verifying whether the government is doing its job.” This argument hearkens back to the watchdog function of the press; does this function matter in the context of gun permit data? What is the cost to individuals' privacy? How do we, or should we at all, balance the interest in scrutinizing government records with the privacy concerns of those who have permits to own guns?