Philly openly violates PA Gun law

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pdm

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From the Philly Post:
Last weekend, Philadelphia’s Department of Licenses and Inspections, an agency not usually known for its transparency and user-friendliness, unveiled a new web app that displays licensing, permit and violation information on a (relatively) easy-to-use interactive map. One of the more interesting aspects to this new data transparency is an array of gun permit appeals, essentially a list of Philadelphians who have been denied a gun permit or had their permit revoked and who have appealed to have the decision overturned.
This is completely illegal, and there are penalties. Allow me to point you to the Uniform Firearms Act of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Code. From the UFA:
(i) Confidentiality.–All information provided by the potential purchaser, transferee or applicant, including, but not limited to, the potential purchaser, transferee or applicant’s name or identity, furnished by a potential purchaser or transferee under this section or any applicant for a license to carry a firearm as provided by section 6109 shall be confidential and not subject to public disclosure. In addition to any other sanction or penalty imposed by this chapter, any person, licensed dealer, State or local governmental agency or department that violates this subsection shall be liable in civil damages in the amount of $1,000 per occurrence or three times the actual damages incurred as a result of the violation, whichever is greater, as well as reasonable attorney fees.
If I were one of these people listed, I’d be filing the lawsuit right now. This is unconscionable. The criminals that run that city clearly think they are above the law. I say we ought to show them who can get away with what. I count at least $29,000 dollars worth of violations here, and attorneys fees will probably drive that higher by orders of magnitude. They should be made to pay for this.

[angry]
 
I totally agree that they should be made to pay for this. Unfortunately it will be the taxpayers of Philly who pay if the lawsuit is successful.

If they do file a law suit, they should demand the city establish a multi-million dollar trust fund to compensate victims for loses if they are targeted by criminals after their name was posted to the website.
 
per the comments at the link above, the information has been removed from the city's site:

“UPDATE [8/15/12, 4:40 p.m.]: Mark McDonald from the mayor’s press office called with the following explanation: “The legal department has determined that this is public information. Its publication is legal. An individual who is denied a permit and files an appeal, that person has waived their right to confidentiality. All that said, within the government, there is a concern about the propriety of publishing the information, and so we’re looking at this again. On the one hand, city government wants to be transparent and believes in the concept of open data. Access to information makes for strong citizenry and effective government. But on the other hand, there are public safety concerns with regard to this information. Perhaps some of it should be redacted, although we haven’t made a conclusion that way. We’ll work toward a decision to whether this stuff gets put back up.”

I don't know... It seems to me some robbers now know who doesn't have a gun to protect their property, and may act accordingly.
 
I do hope those damaged seek the civil award they are due en mass.

The only way to prevent this sort of thing in the future is to leave an institutional memory of pain so that they don't do it again.
 
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