The following might well appear in the Letters (Forum) section of Gun Week.
Earlier this week, on 14 March a number of pro gun individuals and groups met and petitioned their government (state government) for a redress of grievances concerning state law and the antics of the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP), an organization previously known as The Coal and Iron Cops. The legislative proposals involved were HB 2537 by Metcalf and HB 2231 by Cappelli. Full texts of the above mentioned can be seen a www.legis.state.pa.us .
Also questioned is the PSP practice of maintaining a listing, or registry in a computerized data base of approved gun purchasers, that is to say law abiding citizens who chose to exercise their constitutional rights via the purchase of a firearm or arms. Naturally, this listing or registry contains, among other things, the SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER of the purchaser. Interestingly, retention of personal data, derived from APPROVED PURCHASES BY LAW ABIDING CITIZENS seems to be at odds with both existing state and federal laws, laws which the PSP seemingly views itself immune from. Isn't it a shame that us ordinary citizens lack such convenient dispensations, for possession of same, by us ordinary folk would be more than a little convenient, don't you think? In any case, interested parties can read news accounts of the 14 March demonstration in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review and or Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of 15 March. Likely other papers carried coverage too. Unexplained by PSP spokesperson Jack Lewis, was the following argument AGAINST elimination of the above mentioned listing or registry. "Elimination of the listing would place the safety and lives of citizens and police officers in jeopardy". Given that only LAW ABIDING CITIZENS make it to this listing, what is it that would create the "jeopardy" to the lives and safety of citizens and police officers he mentions?
But wait, THERE'S MORE as those ads proclaim, and in this case MORE might turn out to be really interesting. Readers are no doubt aware of what have been described in news stories as "security breaches", that is to say instances where supposedly secure data bases turned out to be less secure than was claimed by the owner-operators thereof, a situation resulting in the personal data of thousands of people ending up in unknown hands. Does the name ChoicePoint, to mention just one data base operator ring familiar? By the way, this lack of data security has already led to a significant number of instances of IDENTITY THEFT.
Now then, nothing above said is intended to say or infer that the PSP would knowingly aid IDENTITY THIEVES, however how good is their data security? Remember, others claimed that theirs was great, till it turned out that it didn't quite reach the heights claimed for it. Remember also that SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS, contained in this PSP data base are, to identity thieves, MANNA FROM HEAVEN.
So dear readers, before we find out, the hard way, that these PSP data bases were lacking in data security, let's have an end to the already legally questionable listings, registries and data bases involved, for undoing the damage caused by identity theft is a labor intensive and expensive process, where the labor and costs come out of the victim's hide.
Earlier this week, on 14 March a number of pro gun individuals and groups met and petitioned their government (state government) for a redress of grievances concerning state law and the antics of the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP), an organization previously known as The Coal and Iron Cops. The legislative proposals involved were HB 2537 by Metcalf and HB 2231 by Cappelli. Full texts of the above mentioned can be seen a www.legis.state.pa.us .
Also questioned is the PSP practice of maintaining a listing, or registry in a computerized data base of approved gun purchasers, that is to say law abiding citizens who chose to exercise their constitutional rights via the purchase of a firearm or arms. Naturally, this listing or registry contains, among other things, the SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER of the purchaser. Interestingly, retention of personal data, derived from APPROVED PURCHASES BY LAW ABIDING CITIZENS seems to be at odds with both existing state and federal laws, laws which the PSP seemingly views itself immune from. Isn't it a shame that us ordinary citizens lack such convenient dispensations, for possession of same, by us ordinary folk would be more than a little convenient, don't you think? In any case, interested parties can read news accounts of the 14 March demonstration in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review and or Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of 15 March. Likely other papers carried coverage too. Unexplained by PSP spokesperson Jack Lewis, was the following argument AGAINST elimination of the above mentioned listing or registry. "Elimination of the listing would place the safety and lives of citizens and police officers in jeopardy". Given that only LAW ABIDING CITIZENS make it to this listing, what is it that would create the "jeopardy" to the lives and safety of citizens and police officers he mentions?
But wait, THERE'S MORE as those ads proclaim, and in this case MORE might turn out to be really interesting. Readers are no doubt aware of what have been described in news stories as "security breaches", that is to say instances where supposedly secure data bases turned out to be less secure than was claimed by the owner-operators thereof, a situation resulting in the personal data of thousands of people ending up in unknown hands. Does the name ChoicePoint, to mention just one data base operator ring familiar? By the way, this lack of data security has already led to a significant number of instances of IDENTITY THEFT.
Now then, nothing above said is intended to say or infer that the PSP would knowingly aid IDENTITY THIEVES, however how good is their data security? Remember, others claimed that theirs was great, till it turned out that it didn't quite reach the heights claimed for it. Remember also that SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS, contained in this PSP data base are, to identity thieves, MANNA FROM HEAVEN.
So dear readers, before we find out, the hard way, that these PSP data bases were lacking in data security, let's have an end to the already legally questionable listings, registries and data bases involved, for undoing the damage caused by identity theft is a labor intensive and expensive process, where the labor and costs come out of the victim's hide.