If it’s as dumb as publicly wearing weapons- or martial arts-oriented clothing, it’s NOT paying attention to what you’re currently receiving in your mail - this is CERTAINLY open to ordinary snoops and potential criminals. Your OUTBOUND mail is vulnerable, also. If you buy a new gun, for example - and register your warranty, check to see if it can be done online, versus mailing in the warranty card - some gunmakers might want you to do BOTH, for positive verification. If you have to mail in a card, the best way is to glue or staple it to a blank sheet of paper, and use SECURITY envelopes for this, that can’t be seen through under light. If organizations won’t send mail like magazines in discrete, plain wrappers, CANCEL them, if you can - believe me, you’ll survive the withdrawal symptoms. FYI
Always a good thing to be aware of.
I, am leaving mine be. I get a variety of different magazines including multiple firearm related. Is what it is. I’m not personally taking significant steps to avoid people thinking I own guns. I’m less worried about the mail carrier or someone taking stuff out of my bailbox thinking I own guns than I am worried about the person standing behind me in line (because nobody can prevent strangers from ever being near them) figuring out I have a gun on me that’s a few feet away from them while my back is turned (impossible to never have your back to someone unless you live in a city with a population of 50, IME, it’s gonna happen anytime you go anywhere)
But I also live in an area where a lot of people own guns, it doesn’t make me stand out from the crowd much. If you live in a place where gun ownership is rare and being a gun owner makes you a sore thumb…might be wise to treat it more carefully
What happens in the physical world – people standing in line behind you or paper mail – is far less risky than one’s digital footprint. I’ve lost count of the number of credit monitoring services I’ve been given by firms as “we’re sorry” compensation for my information having been stolen from their databases – Home Depot, Target, Equifax, etc.
A couple years ago, I received a frantic call from my 88 year-old mother telling me that her grandson, Jesse, had been involved in a drunk driving accident in Kansas where a pregnant woman was killed. And, she received a call from a bail-bondsman and lawyer in Kansas demanding money to get Jesse out of jail. The callers had all sorts of details about Jesse’s relatives and work history. Jesse lived in New Mexico and, at the time, held a top-secret clearance at Los Alamos National Labs and could not be reached by phone at the time.
Of course, this was the classic “Grandma scam.” The callers had Jesse’s classified federal personnel file (and millions of others’) that had been stolen from the Office of Personnel Management by Chinese hackers and then sold or transferred to other nefarious actors. Those organized criminal gangs are rarely, if ever, prosecuted for their crimes.
People who carry firearms pursuant to some sort of CCW permit should understand that their personal information is “out there.” At best it’s under the care of a local sheriff’s office or state database with all the security (or lack thereof) that state and local government employees might provide.
Added to the out and out data thefts are ransomware attacks where the data is sequestered until a demand is paid. Municipalities and hospitals have been high profile victims of this. I remember when data was kept in good ol’ filing cabinets that lined walls of offices and created aisles in buildings, with file folders of different colors, with plastic tabs as labels. If you wanted any data, you’d have to physically steal it, hopeful that what you were looking for hadn’t been misfiled by a temp having a bad day.
AARP, Bon appetite, magazines, food and wine magazines, and USCCA magazines.
Don’t forget about all the bills that are coming in too! Then when the elections get rolling every candidate is sending daily advertisement of how they are going to make life so much better for us.
I opened up the except cookies on my computer, but I have not been sent a single cookie yet! I want some chocolate chip cookies dang it!