In response to a WRAL television report in Raleigh, N.C., on concealed-weapons permits that included a searchable database, a gun-rights organization has launched a campaign against the reporter and his supervisors and applied pressure to the station's advertisers, reports the Raleigh News & Observer. Grass Roots North Carolina, which calls itself “North Carolina's only 'no compromise' gun rights organization,” has not quieted its campaign against WRAL after the Aurora, Co., theater killings. Paul Valone, the organization's president, said the group has a long-standing policy that it will take economic action against any media outlet that divulges information about gun owners that group members think should remain private.
Valone urged WRAL to take down the database that allows users to find out if people who live nearby have gun permits. A searcher looking at a particular town or city will see the streets where gun-permit holders live but won't see the name or specific address of the permit holder. When their effort to have the site taken down failed, Valone turned to his organization's email alert network, asking 50,000 people to deliver a message to Mark Binker, the multimedia investigative reporter who posted the information, his bosses, and the station's advertisers. Valone posted information about Binker culled from websites and social media sites, including photos of the reporter's wife and children.