NOTICE: This post will no longer be updated. The new Commercial Appeal Compilation is located at its own separate page, accessible by the previous link, or the link in the top bar of this webpage. Please look to that page for future updates concerning the efforts of the Commercial Appeal to violate the privacy of hundreds of thousands of law-abiding citizens here in Tennessee.
On the tenth of February, 2009, I became aware of the fact that the Commercial Appeal, a newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee, had procured a copy of the state’s public database of Handgun Carry Permit Holders, and taken it upon themselves to convert it into a web-based, searchable system, available to anyone with an internet connection. I consider this to be a massive invasion of my privacy, and the privacy of the over-200,000 other permit holders here in Tennessee, in addition to a possible endangerment of those individuals listed in the database. What follows is a documentation of all of the posts, letters, and writings I have penned since, and will hopefully be updated if/when I write more:
10FEB09: A letter to every member of the editorial staff of the Commercial Appeal, expressing my displeasure over their publication of the database. No one I sent this email to has ever responded.
11FEB09: Documentation of other webpages expressing their outrage over this privacy invasion.
13FEB09: A reciprocal listing of the contact information for all members of the staff at the Commercial Appeal, as well as whatever other public knowledge is available on them. I would stress that all information on this list is available through public, legal channels, and this information will be deleted from my webpage as soon as the Commercial Appeal takes down its HCP database.
Also on this day, I contacted all of the advertisers I could find on the Commercial Appeal’s webpage, and told them I would never purchase their goods or services again, until either the database comes down, or they stop advertising at the Commercial Appeal.
14FEB09: The Commercial Appeal started writing editorials defending the database and rationalizing their decisions concerning it, and I started fisking those editorials.
15FEB09: It came to light that my commenting account at the Commercial Appeal’s webpage had been banned without cause, explanation, or notification.
Also on this day, the Commercial Appeal continued publishing its rationalizations, and I continued fisking them.
17FEB09: In response to the public hue and cry concerning it, the Commercial Appeal goes and updates their database.
18FEB09: I ask those who are writing to and about the Commercial Appeal to maintain an unquestionable level of decency and courtesy. The editorials at the Commercial Appeal and elsewhere constantly reference “ominous threats”, but without providing any specific examples – we need to keep it that way.
20FEB09: Yet another editorial was published by the Commercial Appeal, and I continued my fisking trend.
22FEB09: I finally heard back from the First Tennesse Bank, one of the advertisers I contacted. I will never use that bank in the future.
23FEB09: And still yet another editorial was published by the Commercial Appeal, and handled by me.
24FEB09: I contacted my local legislators expressing my support of a bill that would make the state’s HCP database private, in addition to other firearm-related bills.
25FEB09: Three of those bills made it out of committee.
27FEB09: Another editorial was published by the Commercial Appeal and addressed by me.
28FEB09: I examine some of the arguments put forward by the supporters of the Commercial Appeal’s actions.
03MAR09: The Commercial Appeal calls in backup in the form of an external writer. Too bad said writer is employed by the same company that also owns the Commercial Appeal…
04MAR09:
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