Gun Geo Marker app tries to locate homes, businesses of gun owners

[Zimbow]

A new Android app asks users to expose the home addresses of gun owners they deem “potentially unsafe” -- and share that information with the world.
The Gun Geo Marker app, released to Google’s Play app store on July 7, invites users to mark the homes and businesses of “suspected unsafe gun owners … to help others in the area learn about their geography of risk from gun accidents or violence. "The app bills itself as merely a tool to collect information, but it was hit with a firestorm of negative reviews and comments from people worried that it could do more harm than good.

“This is dangerous and invasive,” wrote Levi Russell in a review of the app. “Dangerous because it allows criminals to determine where they might steal firearms….you are an accomplice to any firearm theft that will occur due to the existence of this app.”

"Major violation of privacy,” wrote Danielle Sigman in another review, one of more than 700 one-star reviews of the app. “Could cause a lot of safety issues for non-gun owners.”
Brett Stalbaum, the developer of Gun Geo Marker and a lecturer with the Visual Arts department of the University of California, San Diego, said he had received threats over the app.

"The gun rights community has been busy making personal threats (we remain unconcerned), as well as spamming the Gun Geo Marker database with false markers," he exclusively told FoxNews.com. "Though these fake markers are not useful for identifying dangerous guns and owners, they are certainly representative of the highly paranoid reaction we have come to expect from any attempt to improve gun safety in the United States.

"This kind of reaction -- automatically lining up on the wrong side of reasonable measures to improve the safe use and ownership of guns -- aids and abets the crisis of child shooting deaths," he said.
In January, a similar outcry arose after a New York newspaper published the home addresses of area residents with permits to own guns. After threats were called into their offices and the home addresses of editors posted online, The Journal News took down the data.
Whether an app or online, publishing the addresses of gun owners is a risky proposition, experts warn.

“This makes those who don't have guns an easier target for criminals. It’s a safety issue,” John Lott, gun expert and author of the book "More Guns, Less Crime," told FoxNews.com.
“I’ve debated a lot of gun control advocates over the years, and I’ve never met someone who has been willing to put up a sign in front of their house indicating that their home is a gun-free zone,” he said.
Google tells FoxNews.com they do not comment on individual apps, but said to refer to their Google Play developer program policies for apps that are not allowed.

The policy says Google Play does not allow content that contains violence or hate speech, bullying or illegal activities, among others. Gun Geo Marker is not available on the iPhone.
"As a gun owner myself, I want to see our rights preserved, and thwarting the will of 90 percent of the American people who want common sense, constitutional measures to improve gun safety is mathematically unwise," Stalbaum said.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/07/...es-gun-owners/

Here are more links;

http://www.livescience.com/38115-gun...eo-marker.html

http://www.outdoorhub.com/news/gun-g...es-gun-owners/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...s.gungeomarker

[mrveggieman]

This is really stupid. Now you are making it that much easier for criminals to find unarmed homes to break in. I hope that the idiots that developed this app get robbed and none of their armed neighboors come to their aid.

[duane1969]

The whole point of this app is to paint gun owners as bad people and target them for personal attacks and harassment. The app maker says the app is for marking where dangerous gun owners are...who decides what a dangerous gun owner is? I dare say that ANY gun owner is a dangerous gun owner in the minds of anti-gun nuts so all gun owners are subject to being labeled on this app by them.

I wonder if it would be acceptable to create an app where you enter the name and address of women who had an abortion or of gay people?

EDIT: I downloaded the app and I can't get it to work. From what I can tell the app maker has disabled it and is using it to just direct you to his website. When you open the app it just has a button that says "What the Project Really Is" and clicking it takes you to the website. Other than that I don't see anything about marking where gun owners live or anything.

[ajbrinn]

"The guns right community" ha I think its so cute Americans still think its a right, because its not neither is voting nor freedom. Foolish society..... And I think this guy got what he really wanted, cheap publicity Now when he releases a product the spotlight will be on him from somewhere

[Wickabee]

Every gun owner is potentially dangerous, Duane.

[mrveggieman]

Every gun owner is potentially dangerous, Duane.

Just like everyone who drives a motorvechicle has the potential of committing a homocide. Your point???

[Wickabee]

Just like everyone who drives a motorvechicle has the potential of committing a homocide. Your point???

My point is that any gun owner at any moment can just snap, making every gun owner potentially dangerous. That makes every gun owner, from my perspective, dangerous. And yes, everyone with a car is a potential murderer. Just because my skin is white and you hate me and want to see me dead for it doesn't mean you have to argue everything I say, veg. I made a point about guns, it had already been asserted that people are crazy for thinking every gun owner is dangerous. The fact is, every gun owner is dangerous. I made a point, you said something about cars. You made no point. You simply argued because you know I'm white and hate me.

[mrveggieman]

My point is that any gun owner at any moment can just snap, making every gun owner potentially dangerous. That makes every gun owner, from my perspective, dangerous. And yes, everyone with a car is a potential murderer. Just because my skin is white and you hate me and want to see me dead for it doesn't mean you have to argue everything I say, veg. I made a point about guns, it had already been asserted that people are crazy for thinking every gun owner is dangerous. The fact is, every gun owner is dangerous. I made a point, you said something about cars. You made no point. You simply argued because you know I'm white and hate me.

[Wickabee]

Very. You're making it very obvious you hate white people.

[mrveggieman]

Very. You're making it very obvious you hate white people.