This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
After reading Emily Bazelon's op-ed, "Outing the addresses of gun owners" (Opinion, Jan. 5), it looks like history is on its way for a repeat.
The Journal News recently printed a map and a list of all gun owners in two New York suburban counties. The only purpose of publishing such information is to promote conflict and prejudice between gun owners and non-gun owners so that parents can point out to their children the community members who are to be feared and treated differently.
This is not discrimination against guns; it is discrimination against people, no different than Jim Crow discrimination laws in post-slavery America.
(It also provides a guaranteed list of places where thieves and criminals can obtain guns.)
When looking back at history, the "free press" was essential for promoting, advocating and endorsing bigotry against blacks in the South, just as it has now done against gun owners in New York.
Without such reassurances and advocacy from the daily papers that this type of discrimination was based on common sense and public health and safety, perhaps apartheid in America may never have thrived.
Hugh Johnson
Salt Lake City