Funny How Your View Of Armed Security Guards Changes...

...when you feel the cold wind blowing down your own spine.

The Journal News of West Nyack, N.Y., has hired armed security guards to defend its offices after receiving a torrent of phone calls and emails responding to the paper's publication of the names and addresses of area residents with pistol permits.

RGA Investigations, a private security company, "is doing private security at on location at the Journal News as a result of the negative response to the article," according to a police report first obtained by the Rockland County Times (Nanuet, N.Y.) and shared with POLITICO. The guards "are armed and will be on site during business hours through at least January 2, 2013."

Last month, in the wake of last month's elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the Gannett-owned Journal News published interactive maps showing the names and addresses of pistol permit holders in New York's Westchester and Rockland counties. Conservatives and gun rights advocates publicly protested the paper's move; on Monday, the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association called for a nationwide boycott of the paper's advertisers, calling it a “wanton act” that “has put in harm's way tens of thousands of lawful license holders."