The personal information of thousands of California gun owners was leaked earlier this week, and law enforcement is now urging gun owners to take precautions.
The California Department of Justice (DOJ) said the leak happened Monday during an update to its firearms dashboard portal online. They claim the website was taken down within 24 hours of posting, but it was enough time for gun owners' identification information to be copy and pasted elsewhere online.
Beyond their names, birthdates and driver's license numbers, home addresses were part of the leak.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea fears not just identity theft, but targeted home burglaries by those who now know the addresses of where to potentially find concealed weapons.
“Firearms are often targets of thieves,” says Honea during a virtual interview. “I think anytime someone who’s intent upon committing a burglary, they’re going to be looking for items of value and guns are certainly something they look for.”
While he admits with the information already online “you can’t pull it back,” he does point to some key actions gun owners, whether exposed in the leak or not, should take to prevent danger and violence if they become the target of a burglary.
“From a local sheriff's standpoint, encourage all of my constituents to one, take precautions to ensure that their identity isn't stolen. In addition to that, I think it's good advice for anybody who owns a firearm, make sure that firearm is secured and take necessary steps to keep it from falling into the wrong hands."
He says storing a firearm in a locked safe is one of the safest methods of preventing this from happening. As for identity theft protection, the DOJ says they will contact people they determine were included in this breach and will provide credit monitoring service in the meantime.
He also encourages local California citizen concealed weapon holders, or any member of the community with questions or concerns, to contact the California DOJ directly.
The DOJ says it's continuing to investigate how the information was posted online and how many people overall were affected. The leak reportedly included thousands of people who applied for a concealed carry weapons permit from 2011 to 2021.