Mobile App Allows Anonymous Geo-Tagging of Gun Owners

On July 4th, the Walking Tools Laboratory released the Gun Geo Marker App for Android OS Devices. This App lets users anonymously tag the locations of gun owners: “The Gun Geo Marker operates very simply, letting parents and community members mark, or geolocate, sites associated with potentially unsafe guns and gun owners. These locations are typically the homes or businesses of suspected unsafe gun owners, but might also be public lands or other locations where guns are not handled safely, or situations where proper rights to own or use any particular type of firearm may not exist.” The App’s creators add: “[Y]ou should mark any location about which you have a gun-related concern.” View Gun Geo Marker Website.

This tagging process is disturbing. As the Free Patriot website explains: “The applications’s entire purpose is to document and map the personal addresses of people who own guns. The ‘irresponsible’ part of that is completely at the discretion of the person [doing the tagging].”

The App’s developers encourage users to tag locations anonymously: “Happy Independence Day to all! What better way to spend your holiday than by exercising your first amendment right and making your neighborhood a safer place simply by anonymously marking the locations of any guns or owners of concern?”

The App developers have a clear anti-gun agenda: “If enough members of your community take the time to mark dangerous gun sites and owners, then this crowd-sourced data may … perhaps even influence national policy. It is a shame that this kind of ‘tattle ware’ is necessary, but it may be the only option….”

App Threatens Gun Owners
This geo-tagging App can be abused in many ways. First, the “tags” violate the privacy of law-abiding gun owners. Second, while the stated purpose of the App is to identify “potentially unsafe guns and gun owners”, there is no standard for determining “potentially unsafe”. Persons or businesses can be tagged solely to intimidate or harass. By pinpointing the location of gun owners, the tags also provide a road map for thieves. As one App reviewer states: “This app does nothing but invade the privacy of legal gun owners, and put them at risk of home robberies”.

Critical Comments from Google App Store Users:
“The makers of this app should be ashamed. The makers are asking people to rat out their neighbors. Thieves can use this app to know which houses to rob when the owners are off at work. Yes, the developers of this app have given criminals another excellent tool….”

“Anyone can mark anyone whether they own a gun or not. This is not reliable and only serves to invade the privacy of law-abiding citizens. It should be removed at once and never made available again.”

“Crime Magnet — This is dangerous and invasive. Dangerous because it allows criminals to determine where they might steal firearms. This has already happened thanks to a newspaper in New York.”

“Purely subjective and wrought with potential for abuse both by person doing marking AND potential criminals. This kind of app should be banned!”

“Great app for sheeple and criminals wanting to know which houses from which to steal firearms. Wonderful for attempting to stifle the 2nd Amendment rights and assisting Big Brother with violating the 4th Amendment as well.”

App Developed with Tax-Payer Money?
The Gun Geo Marker App was developed by Walking Tools Laboratory, which is affiliated with the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). Associated with Walking Tools is Brett Stalbaum, “a full-time lecturer and coordinator for the Interdisciplinary Computing in the Arts Major (ICAM) at UCSD”. We assume, therefore, that this App was developed, at least in part, by persons receiving tax-payer dollars through UCSD.