Editorialized Philly Gun Story Passed Off as News
Posted by Peter Suciu on February 6, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Philly.com, home for The Philadelphia Daily News, has run a highly editorialized piece under the guise of news. Ironically, it ran said piece in the local news section, but yet it is about a gun law and those with ties to Florida. So is this really national news?
The story covers the main points without too much bias:
“Pennsylvania’s firearms reciprocity agreements require the state to recognize permits from 24 other states that have permit laws as strict or stricter than its own and that those states, in turn, recognize Pennsylvania weapons permits.
“Among the states covered, there are three – Florida, Utah and New Hampshire – that allow out-of-state residents to get permits even if they don’t qualify or apply for permits in their home state.”
But the unbiased reporting ends there. Note these passages:
”District Attorney Seth Williams said that the loophole defeats local efforts to keep streets safe.”
”Florida looks only at convictions, not arrest history or one’s character and reputation, as the Philadelphia police do.”
OK, we have a problem with these two statements. How would this “loophole” increase crime, as in not keeping the streets safe? People still have to apply for the permits, as the second passage notes. Florida looks for convictions. And what exactly does “arrest history” mean? Couldn’t someone have been arrested, and found not guilty? If you didn’t do the crime (and were found not guilty) should you lose your rights to own a gun?
And what does character and reputation mean? So in Philadelphia – the city of Brotherly Love – if the police don’t like your “character” you can be denied a gun permit, even if you are law abiding and have no other reason to be denied?
So we have now a problem with the reporting and the gun laws in Philly!
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