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The mysterious package at editorial writer Christian Trejbal's home turned out to be a box of blank DHL mailing labels. Here's the latest news update.

Moments ago we posted a story on the Roanoke.com Web site that a bomb squad has been called to the home of editorial writer Christian Trejbal, whose Sunday column and role in posting an online database of Virginia concealed handgun permit holders has prompted outrage among gun owners. Click HERE to read the story.

Man, I hope this is a misunderstanding.

It gives me an opportunity to highlight what I felt were some powerful comments Jeff Buchanan posted to an earlier blog entry:

"I was troubled to see some on my side of the argument attempt to shed light on Trejbal's family's whereabouts such as schools his children attend, etc., because that is NOT what the 2nd Amendment crowd is about. We are not about retribution or intimidation, but we are about accountability. We support the protection of life, limb, and property from those who would deny us those things and we proactively take measures to prevent those denials from occurring."

I just got word that the concealed carry database has been pulled off our site. A statement is likely forthcoming.

I don't have time to offer more comments because I'm late to pick up my kids from the babysitter.

What a day...

I invested quite a bit of time and thought on my Sunday column on the despicable practice of some celebrity hunters, including Jimmy Houston and country music stars Ronnie Dunn and Troy Gentry, taking shortcuts to pad their egos and resumes.

I was pleased to get a fair amount of supportive feedback on the column, but another Roanoke Times column from Sunday has pretty much, ahem, blown me away.

In an editorial in the New River Valley Current, Christian Trejbal wrote about his efforts to obtain a list of New River Valley residents who have concealed handgun permits. This was his way of kicking off Sunshine Week, during which we citizens can celebrate the fact that the public has access to many government records. You can read the column HERE.

As I type this, the column appears to have generated 312 comments on an attached message board on our Roanoke.com site. I write "appears to" because I can't open the message board. I know Trejbal's column has gone national on shooting and hunting boards so it wouldn't surprise me if the feedback has overwhelmed our server.

As a journalist, I'm a big supporter of open government. The Freedom of Information Act helps us -- and concerned citizens -- locate information that can shed light on misdeeds of government officials. For example, a few years ago it helped expose spending misdeeds within the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Under Virginia's system, the list of concealed weapons permit holders is part of the public record (just like boat registrations, among other things, by the way). Which means anyone who's willing to pay for the processing of the request can get their hands on the information. Trejbal got the list, which was in turn posted on the Roanoke.com website and can be accessed through his column.

Trejbal is catching some heat for this passage: "Local celebrities generally don't carry, but at least a half dozen elected officials do. I'll leave it to readers to figure out which ones so you can avoid annoying them at meetings."

I think that was supposed to be funny, but if you were one of those permit-holding elected officials, what would you think about that sentence?

But this is the passage that's getting most of the attention: "A state that eagerly puts sex offender data online complete with an interactive map could easily do the same with gun permits, but it does not."

Judging by e-mail and Internet message board chatter, some concealed carry permit holders aren't too happy with the implication that they and convicted sex offenders be treated similarly, particularly since permit holders must undergo a background check to ensure they are not convicted felons, so they are pretty much on the opposite end of the criminal spectrum.

But the real question is, should that kind of information be EASILY accesible?

Would it be used only by law-abiding citizens who want to make sure their neighbors, babysitters or carpool drivers aren't, as Trejbal writes, "packing"?

Some critics of the column are pointing out that criminals could also get their hands on it, and not necessarily so they know which houses to avoid for fear of encountering an armed homeowner intent on protecting his property and/or family.

Rather, they could wait until the resident leaves then burglarize the home in hopes of scoring more guns, because, let's face it, a concealed carry permit holder likely owns more than just one gun.

Granted, criminals intent on stealing guns already get some help pre-qualifying potential victims because many love to advertise their passion through window and bumper stickers. Should it be made even easier?

Prompted by a neighbor who just took a concealed carry course, I had actually been thinking recently that I should also take the class and get the permit. No, I don't want to start "packing." But the law regarding concealed weapons is pretty tough and I want to make sure I'm compliant when driving to the range, etc.

I was thinking it would be interesting to write a column about the process, so I guess it wouldn't be a secret for me. Because I write about shooting and hunting, anyone who's paying attention, and that includes my neighbors, knows I own guns. And they also know I keep them all locked up from kids and burglars. But I appreciate that I can put that information out there under my own terms. And I also appreciate why most concealed handgun permit carriers would prefer to keep that information more than just a simple mouse click away.

If you haven't already gotten burned out from posting on other boards, I'd love to hear what you all think about the topic.

Yesterday started fairly early for me and photographer Sam Dean as we headed up to Giles County a little after 7 a.m. to connect with DGIF wildlife biologist Mark Lowles, who is working on a turkey collaring project.

As we were driving through Blacksburg we saw a herd of maybe 10 deer standing next to a subdivision. I wanted Sam to shoot them (with the camera) for possible use with our future coverage of urban deer issues. By the time we got turned around the deer were gone and the detour had put us a few minutes behind.

When we got to where we were supposed to meet Lowles there was only one state truck at the site. That was odd. We figured the truck was technician Marvin Gautier's, who had walked in before dawn to get in the blind near the net canon set-up. So where was Lowles' truck?

We were in the middle of nowhere so it wasn't as if he had slipped down to 7-11 for a cup of coffee. We suspected that Gautier had shot the canon and Lowles had driven up the gated Forest Service road to work up the birds. So we started hiking up the hill. We didn't go far before we thought better of it. We had no idea how far up they were. Fortunately Lowles had left the gate unlocked so we ran back to my truck, I shifted into four-wheel-drive and we headed up.

We found them about a mile up the mountain -- and there was Lowles about to snap a transmitter on a huge gobbler. Before I had even stopped the truck Sam jumped out, started taking pictures, and got what we needed for a couple of stories.

Only after the gobbler and three hens Gautier had also nabbed had been taken care of and released did we have a good laugh about how close we'd come to missing those shots, which were critical for a couple of stories I'm working on.

Sam and I plan to do some turkey hunting this spring. I can only hope this is just the start of a string of gobbler luck.

Here's a shot of Adrian Wynn, a Salem police officer, with the awesome whitetail he shot in Botetourt County this past season.

The buck had 15 scoreable points, and racked up a score of 172 (unofficial) in the Boone and Crockett system. It wasn't the highest-scoring buck shot in Virginia this past season, but it was up there.

I lead my Roanoke Times story about Virginia's big game kill with a short re-cap of Wynn's hunt, but I didn't get to use this picture on today's Outdoors page because technical issues kept me from getting the pictures until the page was already done.

As for the big game kill numbers, I wasn't too surprised. I figured the abundant mast might negate the effects of liberalized antlerless hunting regs, but that didn't happen. If it had been a poor mast year, which would have made deer even easier to locate, I bet we would have seen a record kill or close to it.

The record bear kill is proof that Virginia's black bear population is incredibly healthy. I realize plenty of people don't care for the idea of killing bears, but without hunting these big animals would be causing big problems. As it is, bears could be one of the big wildlife management challenges of the near future.

The turkey kill was dismal. Abundant mast was partly responsible, but the big thing is a lack of hunting pressure. Many deer hunters will still shoot turkeys when the opportunity presents itself, but the number of hunters who specifically chase the birds in fall is going down, down, down.

Since the numbers were released I've heard from a couple of folks who blame the low turkey kill on coyotes, which these folks assume are devastating the turkey population. Coyotes certainly do get some birds, but biologists say the impact is minimal.