So then I'll ask you, if the list is made public, and later a crime is committed at one of the residences listed, where a person is killed, who quite normally otherwise could not have been,guns are stolen, a perpetrator ends up specifying that he went to a specific residence listed to steal guns, is the attny general liable as an accessory?
No, because he was following the law. If the information ISN'T handed over you're in violation of Federal Law (FOIA).
Maybe the courts could mandate more assistance to criminals by publishing jewelry store purchases
If the government tracked them then by law you could indeed get that list. It's all about the owner of the data though. The idea is that the government is paid for by the people, and so except for matters of national security, any information in a government database is owned by the people. If they want it, they get it. Most people don't realize that, and a lot of areas of government aren't eager to promote that fact, but that's the way it is.
In the jewelry store example though, no database likely exists (on the government level). You can't ask for what they don't have.
This could quite possibly be a discriminatory attack on one group of peoples and I would believe that the right to remain secure in our affairs would be covered here as well.
Unfortunately there is not really a right to privacy in this country. Whether that's right or wrong is another debate, but as it stands, anything outside the doors of your home is pretty much open game.
Medical information is protected by HIPA laws, I also view the attny gens proposed action as an assault on the 2nd A. But if it does pass muster, there is no doubt that our corrupt courts would uphold the "law".
Most data that is covered under HIPA is kept by private companies. Private companies aren't effected by FOIA. Government entities operate under different laws. For the most part, aside from VERY private details such as a social security number (and things covered under HIPA, though as I said that's typically not government maintained - that may be changing soon though), a government must BY LAW hand over just about anything requested of it.
You want to know the address of the attorney general? Go to whatever county he lives in and I guarantee it's out there. Heck just on our website without having to file paperwork you can search for a person and see every piece of property they own, the past ownership history, their current mailing address, which home they actually live in (in the event that they own more than one), whether or not they pay their tax bills on time, and photos of the property both from the air and street. That's just with a 2 minute search on the website. If you're willing to come in and file the paperwork with the attorney you can get a lot more than that (ie, criminal records and code violations by a certain person and the like - you can even get audio recordings of any court trial you want).
We even had judges request that their info be taken off the web, and after review we had to simply say that it wasn't permissible under law to remove their info.
As I said, the absolute best way to avoid this information being made public is to avoid having it tracked in the first place. Resist firearms registration and permits required for carry, because when it comes down to it, if it's tracked, then it's public info.
