The special privacy rules in the US for health data, for children, for costumers of video rental businesses, for social media passwords and so forth could soon be joined by a privacy law dedicated to… gun owners.

elkridge.patch.com writes that State Del. Pat McDonough (Maryland) wants to stop newspapers from publishing information about gun owners.

City Paper reports a bill on the subject is one of three that McDonough plans to introduce in the General Assembly session that starts in January.

McDonough, a Middle River Republican who represents parts of Baltimore and Harford counties, told City Paper that the gun owner bill was brought on by current events.

In New York, following the Dec. 14 school shooting in Newtown, CT, The Journal News published an online map of pistol permit holders in three counties.

The map was compiled using public record requests. A blogger retaliated by posting the addresses of Journal News staffers, as CNN reported. One blogger even published the address of the CEO of the paper’s owner, Gannett, as Poynter reports.

“This is really a response to the paper in New York which claimed what they were doing was for the pub­lic good, but what it really is is a mas­sive edi­to­r­ial tak­ing up two pages of the news­pa­per reflect­ing their posi­tion of the news­pa­per,” McDonough told City Paper. “It’s really dis­hon­est to not say it is an editorial.”

Hence, we learn that the initiative is not even privacy driven.

Read the whole story: McDonough to introduce gun owner privacy bill

Read the original map story: Map: Where are the gun permits in your neighborhood?

Read comments on the map story: Outcry over newspaper’s map of handgun permit holders

Also read, if really interested in this matter: Putnam officials refuse to release gun permit data