Do As I Say, Not As I Do  by Tom Reynolds

California’s state motto should be, “do as I say, not as I do”.  In spite of California politicians’ love of gun registries, the state has shown why gun registries must never be allowed.

The Reload is an independent news source dedicated to accurately reporting the details and nuances of big gun stories.  According to The Reload, California gun owners have been put at risk by the Attorney General’s office after the California Department of Justice’s 2022 Firearms Dashboard Portal went live on Monday with publicly-accessible files that include identifying information for those who have concealed carry permits, including names, dates of birth, gender, race, driver license numbers, addresses, and criminal histories.  Some 200,000 concealed carry permit holders had their personal information available for anyone to see.

• The Reload found 244 judge permits, 7 custodial officers, 63 people with a place of employment permit, 420 reserve officers and 2,891 people in Los Angeles County with standard licenses listed in the database.

In addition to that portal, data was exposed on several other online dashboards provided by the state, including: Assault Weapon Registry, Handguns Certified for Sale, Dealer Record of Sale, Firearm Safety Certificate, and Gun Violence Restraining Order dashboards. 

• Social media posts indicate that anyone was able to obtain the documents during the time it was live on the state’s website.

• The leaked private information of gun owners is likely to increase the risk criminals will target their homes for burglaries.

• Attorney General Rob Bonta confirmed the leak.  “We are investigating an exposure of individuals’ personal information connected to the DOJ Firearms Dashboard…Any unauthorized release of personal information is unacceptable. We are working swiftly to address this situation and will provide additional information as soon as possible.”

• In a press release, Bonta had said the dashboard was about ensuring transparency.  (Success!  It can’t get more transparent than that.)

• The databases with detailed information were initially available for download via a button on the website’s mapping feature. It appeared to have been removed from public access by Tuesday afternoon.

• It is hard to imagine that this download button got included by accident and the California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA) raises the question about the leak being intentional instead of just bureaucratic incompetence.  “Vindictive sore loser bureaucrats (over the Supreme Court decision in NYSRPA v Bruen) have endangered people’s lives and invited conflict by illegally releasing confidential private information…CRPA is working with several legislators and sheriffs to determine the extent of the damage caused by DOJ’s doxing of law-abiding gun owners. Litigation is likely.”

• Just over a year ago, California provided detailed personal information of all gun owners in the state to educational institutions across the country, despite objections over concerns about data security and individual privacy. (Not a problem anymore.)

Gun registries and federal licensing for buying a firearm have often been proposed by Democrats at both the state and federal level. Prominent members of the Democrat party support these efforts even though Americans of all sexes, races and even Democrats have been buying guns in record numbers.  If the possibility of the government having a list of all gun owners was not enough to ensure that gun registries should never came to pass, the fact that California just exposed the personal information of its concealed carry permit holders should show the danger and idiocy letting government bureaucrats have a gun registry.