Newspaper removes gun map from website

The damage has already been done. It obviously hurt their business and publishing the map of gun permit owners was worth a ton of bad publicity.

Here's the statement from the publisher:

With the passage this week of the NYSAFE gun law, which allows permit holders to request their names and addresses be removed from the public record, we decided to remove the gun permit data from lohud.com at 5 pm today.

While the new law does not require us to remove the data, we believe that doing so complies with its spirit.  For the past four weeks, there has been vigorous debate over our publication of the permit data, which has been viewed nearly 1.2 million times by readers. One of our core missions as a newspaper is to empower our readers with as much information as possible on the critical issues they face, and guns have certainly become a top issue since the massacre in nearby Newtown, Conn. Sharing as much public information as possible provides our readers with the ability to contribute to the discussion, in any way they wish, on how to make their communities safer.

We remain committed to our mission of providing the critical public service of championing free speech and open records.

The lawsuits haven't begun yet, but taking the map off their website won't save them. The dead tree edition will be around forever and you will even be able to find the webpage on the net without looking very hard.

With two suspected burglaries apparently inspired by the map, criminals will probably have the final say.