BY GARY JOHNSON
Reprinted from Loose Change (TCBMag.com)

The release of the much-anticipated movie, Texas Chainsaw 3D, hit theaters last week. I could hardly contain my excitement, imagining myself lounging in one of those cushy theater seats with a bin of buttered popcorn watching a masked serial killer slice and dice (in 3-D yet!) people’s bodies up like he’s carving up a sculpture at the St. Paul Winter Carnival. And, be still my heart, to hear the bones crack and the victims scream in Dolby THX Sensaround! Yes! Apparently a lot of folks saw it the same way, because Texas Chainsaw 3D was last week’s number one box office hit.

Do you suppose those millions of people forgot that just three weeks ago the Sandy Hook elementary school had its own version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

Aside from the thrill-seeking pubescents who go to flicks like this, I wondered how many of the attendees were the very same folks who sent threatening letters to the publisher and staff of The Journal News, a weekly newspaper in White Plains, New York, which recently published a list of gun owners in the two counties it serves.

If you’re not familiar with this story, a smallish Gannett newspaper that serves an upstate New York community decided to publish a list of gun owners following the Newtown shootings. Without playing good idea–bad idea, it should be noted the information is public record and easily gettable from any county office. Personally, I could care less who owns a gun in my county, aside from assault weapons. I have no beef with people who hunt or seek the security of gun ownership. And I don’t much see the point of publishing a list like this, though frankly I don’t see the point of most lists newspapers and magazines feel obligated to fill their pages with.

Truth be told, I guess I wouldn’t mind knowing who in my neighborhood owns a gun, particularly if I live next door to a major nutball. What bothers me most about this story is the berserk reaction it elicited from people living in the counties around White Plains and elsewhere.

There were enough calls and e-mails from anonymous sources (of course) threatening to harm the editors, writers, and managers that armed guards were hired to protect the staff. Crazy people posted the names of the newspaper staff’s children, including what schools they attended. Did they question whether another Adam Lanza might be inspired to lock and load? Reporters were told they would be shot on the way to their cars, and the newspaper offices received the obligatory envelopes containing white powder.

Rather than condemn this kind of behavior from its members, the local gun association, the Westchester County Firearm Owners Association, promoted an advertiser boycott, which is their right. But how can gun-owner associations froth over defending their constitutional right to bear arms and in the same breath seek to deny a newspaper its constitutional right to free speech?

Every gun owner I know is a responsible and good person. They are sportsmen who love to hunt. They find gun ownership a point of pride and a source of camaraderie. I often wonder what they think of those in their brotherhood whose unbridled, hair-trigger rage makes what is most certainly a lunatic fringe look so mainstream.

Editor’s Note: Gary Johnson is President of MSP Communications in Minneapolis, MN and authors the blog Loose Change for TCBmag.com.