Burglars steal two guns from home featured on weapons permit map published by newspaper, just days after break-in at another address on the list



Two addresses that appear on map of legally owned guns published by Journal News on December 23 have been burglarized in last week

Guns, permits and valuables stolen from home in New City, New York, on Wednesday



Thieves broke into house and attempted to steal guns in White Plains, New York, on Saturday



Thieves ransacked a house that features on the gun map published by the Journal News, just days after another home on the list was also targeted.

Burglars broke into the house in New City, New York, on Wednesday and pried open two safes, before leaving with another one.

The criminals escaped with two handguns, two pistol permits, cash, savings bonds and jewelry. The firearms were in the stolen safe.

Deliberately targeted? Burglars stole two handguns at a second home that featured on the controversial gun map published in December

Burglars also broke into a house in White Plains, New York, on Saturday and headed straight for the gun safe.



The thieves struck at this house just three weeks after the names and addresses of legal firearms permit holders were published on the controversial gun map published by the Journal News.

The paper caused a stir on December 23 when it listed thousands of permit holders in suburban Westchester and Rockland counties just north of New York City in an interactive map.

The break-in at Britta Lane, New City, was reported at 9.45 pm on Wednesday evening. Clarkstown Police stated that they currently have no evidence of a link between the burglary and the gun map.



Police believe that the break-in was a 'random crime' but others aren't so sure

Clarkstown Sgt. Joanne Fratianni said in a statement reported by Newsday.com : 'The burglary is still under investigation, and there are no facts to support this correlation at this time. If the investigation develops further information, it will be released accordingly.'

The thieves broke into two safes on the home's third floor and removed a third safe from the basement, that contained a .45 caliber Colt and a .22 caliber Iver Johnson.

They also stole pistol permits from Rockland and Orange counties, and other valuables. The home owners have refused to comment publicly.



While police believe this was a 'random crime', others are not so sure, and many are speculating that the map is now being used by criminals for targeted gun theft

This home in White Plains, New York, is also listed on the controversial gun map and was broken into on Saturday

During the burglary in White Plains at the weekend , the thieves headed for the safe where the homeowner, a man in his 70s, stores his legally owned guns according to Newsday .



The intruders abandoned their attempts when they couldn't crack the safe, and police confirmed that one suspect has been taken into custody.

The home owner also declined to comment in this case but a New York state senator blasted the gun map after this incident.

Republican Senator Greg Ball has proposed legislation that restricts gun permit information to law enforcement authorities and he strongly criticized the Journal News.

'No comment': The White Plains homeowner told News12 he had nothing to add while police continued investigations into the burglary

'It is reported that the burglar used the Journal News’ interactive gun map to target a home included on the map,' Ball said. 'The Journal News has placed the lives of these folks at risk by creating a virtual shopping list for criminals and nut jobs.

'If the connection is proven, this is further proof that these maps are not only an invasion of privacy but that they present a clear and present danger to law-abiding, private citizens.

'Former convicts have already testified to the usefulness of the asinine Journal News ‘gun maps’ yet the reckless editors are evidently willing to roll the dice, gambling with the lives of innocent local homeowners,' the senator continued. 'Criminal's shopping list?' Both homes are featured on the map that lists the names and addresses of legal gun owners

The New York newspaper reportedly hired a team of armed guards to patrol the paper's headquarters in West Nyack after publishing the names and addresses of nearby gun permit owners .

The Rockland County Times reported that Journal News editor Caryn A. McBride hired gun-toting security guards to guard the paper's offices amid a flurry of angry emails and phone calls in the following days.

Along with an article entitled 'The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood,' the Journal News map was compiled in response to the December 14 shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut, editors of the Gannett Corp.-owned newspaper said.

The publication prompted outrage, particularly on social media sites, among gun owners.

'Do you fools realize that you also made a map for criminals to use to find homes to rob that have no guns in them to protect themselves?' Rob Seubert of Silver Spring, Maryland, posted on the newspaper's web site. 'What a bunch of liberal boobs you all are.'

'Reckless': A New York State Senator blasted the Journal News for their controversial gun map

The newspaper's editor and vice president of news, CynDee Royle, defended the decision to list the permit holders.

'We knew publication of the database would be controversial, but we felt sharing as much information as we could about gun ownership in our area was important in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings,' she said.

Some critics retaliated by posting reporters' and editors' addresses and other personal information online.

Howard Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, called the critics' response childish and petulant.

'It doesn't move the issue of gun control to the level of intelligent public discussion,' he said. 'Instead, it transforms what should be a rational public debate on a contentious issue into ugly gutter fighting.'

Calling for change: The paper said that they produced the map because in the wake of the Newtown shooting many people wanted to know who had legal guns in their neighborhood, and there were protests across the country (pictured).

Good said the information about permit holders was public and, if presented in context, served a legitimate interest.

But media critic Al Tompkins of the Florida-based Poynter Institute wrote online this week that the newspaper's reporting had not gone far enough to justify the permit holders' loss of privacy.

'If journalists could show flaws in the gun permitting system, that would be newsworthy,' he said. 'Or, for example, if gun owners were exempted from permits because of political connections, then journalists could better justify the privacy invasion.'

Tompkins said he feared the dispute might prompt lawmakers to play to privacy fears.