By Warner Todd Huston ——Bio and Archives--January 7, 2013
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“That was the most asinine article I’ve ever seen,” said Walter T. Shaw, 65, a former burglar and jewel thief who the FBI blames for more than 3,000 break-ins that netted some $70 million in the 1960s and 1970s. “Having a list of who has a gun is like gold -- why rob that house when you can hit the one next door, where there are no guns? "What they did was insanity," added Shaw, author of "License to Steal," a book about his criminal career.The map of gun owners' homes also gives those crooks specifically interested in stealing guns a roadmap for their criminal enterprises. After all, it is not legal, law-abiding gun owners, but criminals using stolen or illegal weapons that perpetrate crimes. And here the paper has given a ready-made list to those who might want to find guns that can't be traced back to the criminals through legal records. "That’s one of the first things we’d check out " guns are on the top of the list of what you want to steal," another former thief told Fox News. "They can walk out with a shotgun and a couple of handguns and sell them on the street for $300 or $400 a pop. They can sell them to a gangbanger who ends up killing someone." Regardless of the danger the Journal News brought to its community, it has promised to try and print the names and addresses of even more legal gun owners. The paper targeted nearby Putnam County but officials there have refused to release the information.
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as Breitbart.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.
He is also the owner and operator of Publius’ Forum.