Last Updated on June 29, 2022
California’s Democrat Attorney General leaked the personal information of tens of thousands of gun owners in launching the 2022 Firearms Dashboard Portal, an online database to increase “transparency” and “data sharing” on gun ownership as state officials plan crackdowns on the 2nd Amendment.
The massive breach of private information included leaking the details of every single Concealed Carry Weapons (CCW) permit holder in the state. Their names, ages, addresses, license types, and more were all publicly shared through the Firearms Dashboard Portal. Victims of extreme domestic violence who have taken up arms in defense of their personal and family safety weren’t even exempt from the leak, leading to serious concerns that a black market of sensitive information will develop, giving abusers the chance to go after their former victims once again.
While the webpage has since been taken down, it is unclear how long it remained online, and the personal information of some CCW holders has already been shared on social media, indicating that sensitive information likely fell into the hands of bad actors.
Though they took the dashboard offline, many are speculating that the anti-gun California AG’s Office deliberately leaked the information to cause panic and intimidate gun owners.
In a press release made before the dashboard was brought online, Democrat Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is seen by many 2A activists as perhaps the most anti-gun AG in the country, boasted in a press release that the dashboard would “increase transparency and information sharing,” by allowing Californians to access firearm data while still “protecting the personal identifying information” of gun owners – something that didn’t happen.
Bonta claimed in the release that by accessing the Firearms Dashboard, Californians would be able to “better understand the role and potential dangers of firearms within our state.”
The private information leak came in the wake of major rulings by the United States Supreme Court, bolstering the 2nd Amendment and the rights of gun owners and throwing out New York’s tight restrictions on who can hold a concealed carry permit. The ruling also affects gun ownership and firearm carrying in California, where blue cities have long stonewalled CCW applicants. In the aftermath of the court’s ruling, both Bonta and Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom blasted the court’s decision, vowing to find a way to keep guns away from the people.