In a era where technology is used to incriminate otherwise law abiding citizens, one man is using it to protect the second amendment. The Gun Free Zone App allows users to see which businesses are gun free zones and which ones allow fire arms. Users also report the second amendment leanings of businesses.
“I started the app when the newspaper in New York posted a map with gun owner’s home addresses on their website in December. I can’t tell you how angry I was. And still am, now that I think about it,” explains John Pedan, creator of the Gun Free Zone App. “I figured if we could turn that back on itself, we could really fight back against so gun control so I decided to publicize the locations of all the gun free zones in the country. Then, I decided to also publicize which stores are firearm friendly so we can patronize those stores that support the Second Amendment.”
Despite Pedan’s obvious pro-gun stance, his app creation team consists of non-gun owners and Obama voters. Released March 15, the Gun Free Zone App has over 29,000 users and has marked approximately 270,000 locations. The app currently available in iTunes (it’s free) with Blackberry and Windows Mobile versions currently underway.
Pedan said the most important aspect of the Gun Free Zone App is its ability to show the real life impact of second amendment encroachments. “We’re going to add layers to our map that show things like crime statistics, stores going out of business, graffiti, property values, rental vacancies, and I don’t know what else,” said Pedan. “This is how we reach low-information voters – by personalizing the impact of political choices.”
“If we can say to a business owner, “that gun free zone sign in your front window makes you 8% more likely to go out of business in the next 2 years”, I bet that sign will be gone tomorrow,” he explains. “If we can say “because you live within 500 feet of a gun free zone, you’re 15% more likely to be the victim of a violent crime” they’ll stop being low-information voters, at least as far as gun control is concerned.”
Hopeful that his app will change the gun control debate, Pedan says “I believe that eventually, we’ll never hear of gun control again because people will no longer sit on the fence on this.”