Hoosier gun permit holders targeted by Ind. newspaper

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Concerned about Second Amendment rights, folks bought guns and ammunition in record numbers after President Barack Obama's election.

"This is a right that a lot of politicians, a lot of lawmakers want to take away," NRA spokesperson Rachel Parsons said. "They want to curb the rights of law abiding people under a notion that it's going to reduce crime."

Now the Bloomington Herald-Times newspaper published a database of Indiana gun permit holders, searchable by which streets and cities they live.

"We published two stories to look at how the trend on personal protection permit applications had gone since President Obama was elected," editor Bob Zaltsberg said.

The database is available to online subscribers in addition to these stories.

The NRA said the newspaper has likened gun owners to criminals.

"What these newspapers are doing are treating law abiding gun owners the same way that we treat sex offenders," Parsons said. "We're putting a searchable database so anyone can go in to determine how many permit-holders are within your community. That is absolutely outrageous."

The newspaper said that's not the intent.

"We have a number of databases on our site, property transfers, restaurant inspection violations. I don't believe we're treating anybody in those databases like sex offenders," Zaltsberg said.

The NRA said no public good can come from this, but the newspaper stands by its decision.