This week’s outrage comes from our friendly neighborhood search company: the Google Play app store. The new app is called the Gun Geo Marker, and encourages users to “geolocate dangerous guns and owners” in their communities.
According to Google Play, “Geolocation means marking dangerous sites on the App’s map so that you and others can be aware of the risks in your neighborhood.” Think about that for a minute. The purpose of the app–other is to encourage people to randomly “flag” locations in their community they subjectively deem “dangerous” and to make that information as public as possible. The probability for abuse and the certainty of inaccurate “reporting” cannot be overstated. What’s to keep people from marking any location for any reason at all? Nothing. The practice is not only a serious invasion of privacy, but would also be just as dangerous and irresponsible as publishing the names of concealed-carry permit holders in local papers.
We need to be aware of this – The app could enable thieves to target and steal firearms from law-abiding gun owners, while conversely advertising that other residences are “gun free” and therefore easy targets for criminals.
In a recent Fox News article, John Lott, firearms policy expert and author of the book More Guns, Less Crime, said, “This makes those who don’t have guns an easier target for criminals. It’s a safety issue. 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.”
Of course, you get an anti-gun sentiment, anti-NRA element to all of this. The Gun Geomarker site says: “You should not be concerned merely because your neighbors are a member of any national gun advocacy organization. The actual threat – just to cite the best known org – that the National Rifle Association (NRA) and its kin present to you and your children is political. This can be seen clearly in their consistent opposition to gun safety laws that would, for example, require parents to properly secure their guns, allow prosecutors to bring charges against people who allow kids to play with loaded guns, or when they help pass laws prohibiting doctors from asking children about guns in the home in an epidemiological attempt to help prevent children from shooting other children.”
That should tell you all you need to know about the app developer’s political agenda.
There will be many open debates about this app, but for those that are not into the political views this may go hand in hand with an app that points find a shooting place
Source:NRA
Written by Jon Hines
