Updated at 11:25 a.m. April 9, 2018*

A Dallas-based journalist for Vanity Fair and MSNBC posted an Oregon lawmaker's personal information online early Friday morning, as a tit for tat after the lawmaker posted information about supporters of an initiative to ban assault weapon sales in the state.

Kurt Eichenwald launched an extensive Twitter tirade against Rep. Bill Post, a Republican from Keizer, just before 9 a.m. PST. Eichenwald posted a news story about Post's decision earlier this week to share phone numbers and home addresses of three Portland clergy leading an effort to ban sales of assault weapons in Oregon on Facebook.

"Where do the psychos come from?" Eichenwald wrote on Twitter. "This is what happens when the GOP throws open the doors to the mental ward and invites the patients to be their standard bearers."

Post encouraged members of a pro-gun rights Facebook group on Wednesday to contact the initiative supporters and share their information with others. A rabbi and pastor told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Thursday that they had been wondering why they were receiving phone calls, emails and online messages from gun rights supporters. Their information that Post shared came from a publicly available state database.

Republican lawmaker posts info on supporters of plan to ban assault weapon sales in Oregon

Eichenwald went a step further on Friday, posting Post's home address and portions of his social security number and phone number for Eichenwald's 454,000 Twitter followers and countless others to see. Eichenwald quickly deleted the information, saying he'd made his point. Eichenwald could not immediately be reached for comment. But in emails to The Oregonian/OregonLive in early April, Eichenwald said he only published the first three digits of Post's social security number and phone number.

Eichenwald wrote to Post that it "took me 25 seconds to get all the information about you, your wife, your son (tell him happy 25th), your neighbors etc. Don't bring a knife to a bazooka fight."

Post could not immediately be reached on Friday morning regarding the impact of Eichenwald's posting of his information, a tactic known as "doxing."

Supporters only recently launched the effort to get the proposed initiative to ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and large capacity magazines in Oregon on the ballot. They must collect more than 88,000 signatures by July 6 to get it on the ballot for the November election, and they plan to gather signatures at the Portland March for Our Lives event this weekend.

Under the plan, which would take effect in 2019, assault weapons would be broadly defined as certain semiautomatic rifles and pistols that can accommodate detachable magazines and have other military style features such as a collapsible stock or grenade launcher. It would also cover semiautomatic shotguns if they have fixed magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, can accommodate a detachable magazine or have other features.

Military and law enforcement employees who are required to carry firearms would be exempt, as would retailers and manufacturers who sell the weapons to those agencies.

The ban would also cover sales of magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition. People who already own these weapons would be allowed to keep them, if they register them and pass a criminal background check.

-- Hillary Borrud

503-294-4034; @hborrud

*This post has been updated to reflect information provided by Kurt Eichenwald.