Les Jones

Guns > Jack Lail on The Tennessean's Database of CCW Holders

"Knoxville News-Sentinel" online managing editor weighs in at his personal blog on "The Tennesseean's" decision to pubilish a database of Tennessee handgun carry permit holders, and the paper's quick decision to take the database offline.

It is an illustration that just because you legally and easily can publish databases of public information, the public might not think you should. And if you can't defend your position in answering their concerns, maybe they have a point.

In would be no surprise to find people often don't like having their names in publicly searchable databases. CEOs of publicly traded companies don't like their total compensation listed. Public officials don't like government salary databases. People want to keep divorces and bankruptcies out of the paper. Some people don't want what they sold their house for known. Politicians don't particularly like campaign disclosure laws or campaign finance databases -- unless it detrimental to the efforts of their opponents. Public information can be downright embarrassing when it, well, becomes public.

How information is handled (or what we choose to publish/broadcast) in an age of Internet and electronic databases can be vexing. The media should make as much information available as possible. Government, itself, at all levels should be more open; not less so. I'm all for Sunshine. But as the gun database shows, the rational can't just be "because we can."

Good stuff. But notice the typos. Clearly, he's another blogger in need of an editor.

I keed I keed! Actually, I'm going to email Lail and see if he'd be interested in running a revised version of this blog post as a guest editorial in the News-Sentinel.