[At-Large] Withdraw the gun database

[Karl Auerbach]

On 01/23/2013 05:28 PM, Neil Schwartzman wrote:
>
> On Jan 19, 2013, at 3:49 PM, Karl Auerbach <karl at cavebear.com> wrote:
>
>> One can not consistently simultaneously argue for the current wide open
>> WHOIS and sealed ownership of firearms.
>
>
> Who is arguing for that? I think gun ownership databases should be as open as WHOIS.

There is a large body of people, and groups such as the legislatures of 
several States in the US, that are arguing that gun ownership databases 
should be sealed or that people have many opportunities to opt-out.

As I have mentioned, if one can seal or opt out of publication of gun 
ownership data then the case is even stronger that WHOIS data should be 
sealed or that people should be able to opt-out.

What is happening, and it is really happening, is an inversion in which 
data about really potentially life threatening things is being made 
private while data about things that carry no real threat of physical 
harm (domain names) are required to be wide open.

The point is that this is an inconsistent situation.

One path to consistency is to seal both guns and whois.

Another path is to unseal both guns and whois.

And  a third path is to unseal guns and seal whois.

But it is inconsistent to seal guns and unseal whois.

	--karl--