Legislators and gun rights advocates get really angry whenever nosy reporters try to use public records laws to find out who’s packing heat.

When the Westchester Journal News published an online map of local residents with handgun licenses last year, the paper was excoriated by the NRA and its allies; it eventually took the map down. When Gawker published a similar list—without addresses—of New York City handgun permit-holders last month, we were attacked by Fox News and received multiple death threats. And when the editor of the North Carolina Cherokee Scout dared to request — not publish, but merely request — similar data from his local sheriff, he was forced to apologize and resign; he plans to leave the state entirely.

All of which makes it more surprising that, according to a Gawker search of public records, gun-rights groups — including the National Rifle Association — have been accessing the same state gun-permit data for years to help their fundraising and recruitment efforts.

States across the nation have been rushing to change their gun laws to make gun permit information private, moves that have been furiously stoked by the NRA, which argues that the media has “no business possessing personal information” about gun owners. New York made gun information private earlier this year. Last week, Maine’s governor signed an “emergency bill” shielding the identity of gun licensees after the Bangor Daily News — which was in the middle of a two-year investigation of domestic violence and drug abuse — backed down from a public records request for gun permit data. (Republican legislators had called an “emergency press conference” to shame the newspaper into submission.)

In Virginia, state lawmakers passed a bill to seal its gun permit records from public inspection. North Carolina may soon follow suit. A freshman lawmaker in Tennessee is pushing a similar bill in his statehouse.

But while the NRA has lately become one of the harshest critics of fourth estate access gun permit data — it has said “personal information regarding [permit] holders serves no public interest and only exposes law-abiding citizens to potential criminal acts” and places them at “risk to criminals who may target their home to steal firearms” — the group holds itself to a very different standard.

When Tennessee first tried to make gun records private in 2009, the effort died “amid fears that political groups and gun advocates would no longer be able to access addresses of handgun carry permit holders to add to their mailing list soliciting contributions,” according to the Associated Press.

Indeed, in a survey of public records requests filed in 7 of the states that make (or formerly made) gun records public (we’re still waiting on answers from 9 more), Gawker found multiple examples of the NRA and other conservative, “pro-gun” partisans seeking the lists for their own political and fundraising gain.

In 2009, for example, a North Carolina firm called Preferred Communications e-mailed the Virginia State Police to find out how much it could pay to buy a list of the state’s gun permit holders. It was requesting the information on behalf of the NRA:

From: Michele Wood [xxxx@prefcom.net]

Sent: Mon 7/6/2009 11:15 AM

To: Tate, Donna K.

Subject: Concealed Weapons Permits 2008-2009 – VA

My name is Michelle Wood and I work for a company called Preferred Communications. I am inquiring on behalf of the National Rifle Association about your Concealed Weapons Permits. Do you allow these names on these Permits to be purchased?

Can you please let me know if you offer 2008 and/or 2009 names?

Can you please let me know the cost?

Can you please let me know the address to send the check to and also whom to make it payable to?

Can the names be sent via mail on a CD and is there an additional fee for the CD?

Another person who asked Virginia for gun records — though just for statistical data, rather than the actual names — was Robert Pew, a senior researcher for the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action.

Pro-gun groups like the Virginia Gun Owners Coalition, the Virginia Citizens Defense League, and the Virginia Conservative Action PAC put in requests for the full names and addresses of permit holders. So did Rep. J. Randy Forbes, a Republican congressman from Virginia who received in “A” rating from the NRA. The individual snooping into gun owners’ private lives on behalf of the Virginia Conservative Action PAC was Dave Dziok, who served as spokesman for Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

In Tennessee, where the state’s Department of Safety and Homeland Security maintains a database of gun permit owners, requesters have included the Tennessee Senate Group Republican Caucus and Self Defense Solutions, an NRA-certified firearm “training academy.”

Similar requests from gun rights groups or conservative activists and political operatives turned up in Maine, Kentucky and Louisiana. (In all the states we got data for, the requesters also included news outlets, lawyers, academics, voter targeting firms, marketing companies, and opposition researchers.)

One popular requester, who sought gun permit owners’ names in at least four states, was a firm called Catalist, LLC-a private, D.C.-based firm that licenses its voter database to “Democratic and progressive” organizations. Barack Obama used it in 2008.

Few of the requesters we identified agreed to speak on-the-record, name their clients, or explain why they were so interested in obtaining the names and addresses of licensed gun owners. Most also declined to explain how the information — when they successfully obtained it from the government — was ultimately used.

Neither Andrew Arulanandam, the NRA’s public affairs director, nor Stephanie Samford — the NRA spokeswoman who told the AP reporters have “no business” seeking gun owners’ information — replied to our emails asking why the NRA had sought to obtain gun permit owners’ names.

Privacy and gun advocates have commonly said that releasing gun owners’ information invades their privacy, could endanger their safety and makes them easy targets for harassment by law enforcement and criminals (which seems like a strange argument coming from the people who — dubiously — say owning a gun makes you safer from criminals, but whatever).

On the flipside, transparency advocates have argued that keeping records open actually protects gun ownership rights, by giving the public a way to check if police and sheriffs are issuing gun permits fairly.

Aaron Mackey, an attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the group estimates almost a dozen states that have introduced or passed some legislation to restrict access since the Journal News published its gun permit data.

He says the backlash is “confusing” two separate issues.

“The first is the right to access information,” Mackey said. “The second is editorial propriety — whether it’s proper to publish information in the way the Journal News did and whether that’s responsible. Perhaps we should have a conversation about whether it’s responsible, but that’s a different question.”

While you ponder that, here’s a list of everyone who has requested private information about gun permit-holders in six states since 2003:

Arkansas

Steve Jones, Arkansas Carry (gun advocacy nonprofit)

Chad Day, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (journalist)

Andrew DeMillo, Associated Press (journalist)

Jacob Quinn Sanders, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (journalist)

Aaron Nobel, Heavy, Inc. (journalist)

Joe Hudak, Maumelle, AR

Virginia

Federation of American Scientists

Nick Kramer, Catalist LLC (political targeting firm)

Court Ventures (data brokerage firm; subsidiary of Experian)

Michele Wood, Preferred Communications (direct marketing firm; on behalf of NRA)

Paul K. Martin, Atlantic List Company (direct marketing firm)

Larry Zilliox, Investigative Research Specialists (private investigations and opposition research)

Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.)

Dave Dziok, Virginia Conservative Action PAC (political action committee)

Tim Johnson, (legislative assistant for Republican Del. Scott Lingamfelter, who won a “Civil Rights Defense” award from the NRA)

Michael Rentiers, Republican Party of Virginia

Aaron Larrimore, Democratic Party of Virginia

Mike McHugh, Virginia Gun Owners Coalition

Jim Snyder, Virginia Citizens Defense League

Jim Kadison, Virginia Citizens Defense League

George Pettit, Virginia Citizens Defense League

Joe Waldren, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Gordon Hickey, Richmond Times-Dispatch (journalist)

Kyung Lah, CNN (journalist)

Style Weekly (alt weekly magazine)

Nicole Hendrix (criminal justice professor at Radford University)

Richard R. Harris

Louis Gifford

Thomas Miller

Clyde E. Clements, Lynchburg, VA

Ian B. Littlejohn, Dumfries, VA

TJ Parmele, Alexandria, VA

John M. Snyder, Alexandira, VA

Eric Payne, Richmond, VA

David Brgigman, Keezletown, VA

Cory Hutcheson, Lansing, MI

Judith Brown, Pittsburgh, PA

Tennessee

Shawn Harmon, E-Merges.com (data brokerage firm)

Jenny Farmer, Cyragon (political targeting firm)

Data Marketing Network (marketing firm)

Stephen Lindsey, Thomas Lindsey Group (political consulting firm)

Jordan Young, Tennessee Senate Group Republican Caucus

Don Charest, Self Defense Solutions (NRA-certified firearm training academy)

Walter Muskop, Tennessean (journalist)

Grant Smith, Commercial Appeal (journalist)

Judy Walton, Chattanooga Times Free Press (journalist)

Phil Williams, WTVF-TV (journalist)

Kim Barker, ProPublica (journalist)

Aaron Nobel, Heavy Inc. (journalist)

Beverly Knight

Lance Williams

Maine

Nick Kramer, Catalist LLC (political targeting firm)

Shawn Harmon, E-Merges.com (data brokerage firm)

Anne Horrigan, E-Merges.com (data brokerage firm)

Susan Young, Bangor Daily News (journalist)

Mark Anderson, Downeast Energy (utility company)

Celebration Connect

Kentucky

Nick Kramer, Catalist LLC (political targeting firm)

Louisiana

Nick Kramer, Catalist LLC (political targeting firm)

Shawn Harmon, E-Merges.com (data brokerage firm)

Andrew Biemer (Republican operative)

Bombet and Associates (private investigators)

Henninger Media Services (media post-production company)

David Armstrong (social sciences professor at McNeese State University)

Joseph Kutch (attorney)

Perry Stephens, WAFB (journalist)

The Baton-Rouge Advocate (newspaper)

William King

Ray Lucas

Travis Kelm

Derek Leroy McSmith

Terry Vallery

Thomas Gilmore

Michigan

Linda Friedland, Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho, PLC (attorney)

Sergio Hernandez, a former Gawker intern, is a reporter based in New York City. He can be reached at sergio@cerealcommas.com.

Who is:

Catalist LLC, catalist.us

Based in Washington, D.C., according to its marketing material, Catalist’s mission of data collection and sales is to “provide progressive organizations with the data and services needed to better identify, understand, and communicate with the people they need to persuade and mobilize.” According to the company, it maintains and constantly updates a complete national database of over 265 million people to sort databases of registered voters, commercial and Census data, and other specialty data for advocacy, fundraising and strategic planning clients that include Harvard University, ACLU, Freedom to Marry, Maine Democratic Party, National Education Association, NAACP, Planning Parenthood, Sierra Club, Vote for America.

The company submits Freedom of Access Act requests to Maine for access to permits to populate its commercial database.

emerges.com

Based in Annapolis, Md., according to its marketing material, emerges.com compiles and sells lists of hunters and fishermen licenses to organizations across the country. “We regularly capture a raw snapshot of the hunters and fishermen permits file from the agencies across the U.S. who release the data. We then combine the current files with eight other files of older, but no longer publicly available list of hunters and fishermen. This new, larger file is then updated with new mailing addresses through the United States Postal Service change of address database,” and then markets that list to a variety of buyers. emerges.com compiles and sells similar lists of boat owners, large political donors, pilot and aircraft owners, and voters.

The company submits FOAA requests for access to permits to populate its commercial database.

Bangor Daily News, bangordailynews.com

A Bangor-based newspaper of over 46,000 daily circulation, the Bangor Daily News has bureau offices in Portland, Bath, Augusta, Rockland, Belfast, Washington County, Pittsfield, Lincoln and Aroostook County. According to its marketing material, this family-owned newspaper is now in its fourth generation of ownership and has been Maine’s newspaper of record for well over 100 years. Established in 1889 by the great-grandfather of the current publisher, Richard J. Warren, the company “continues to serve its readers and its advertisers with products that are relevant to the times.”

The BDN requested records of concealed weapons permits “as part of long-term reporting projects on domestic violence, sexual assault and drug abuse.”

Downeast Energy, downeastenergy.com

Established in 1908, the Maine-based Downeast Energy, which sells heating and petroleum products and services heating systems in New Hampshire and Maine, merged with NGL Energy Partners of Tulsa, OK, last year. According to its marketing material, the company employs nearly 350 people and serves more than 60,000 customers. The company regularly supports the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life event and, for the past 19 years, has hosted the annual Downeast Energy Classic. Last year, the event was held at Brunswick Golf Club to benefit Jobs For Maine Graduates and Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Several calls to the company to inquire about its intended use of permit information was not returned.

Celebration Connect

There is very little information available about Celebration Connect, but it has been described in media reports as a new and anonymous group that has no website or active contact email. The email address used by this group to submit an unsigned request to the Maine State Police for access to a list of concealed handgun permit holders returns as undeliverable with the message “The email account that you tried to reach does not exist.” Celebration Connect has filed other FOAA requests with Maine this year, including a request to the governor’s office seeking access to “electronic mail for Governor LePage, from Jan. 1st to Feb. 14th, 2013,” and another to the Maine Turnpike Authority for access to email for Peter Mills and Jonathan Arey for the same time period. All three FOAA requests were submitted shortly after midnight on Feb. 15. The domain name celebrationconnect.com is registered to Dan Heskett, but he denies having submitted the records requests.

An email seeking information about this entity’s intended use of permit information was returned undeliverable.