CNN Tracks Straw Purchases, Misses Points
Our friends at Newsbusters.org responded to CNN’s new segment on the so-called “Iron Pipeline.” Thank you to Newsbusters for pointing out that CNN’s reporters essentially crafted a very one-sided and biased piece looking at firearms sales, and in the process never point out that straw purchases are essentially felonies!
Too often the media tries to make it seem that “straw purchases” are legal, and that only when the firearm is handed to a criminal is the law broken! What the media fails to address is that criminals obtain firearms many ways, and even purchasing a “legal” gun for a criminal is in itself a crime. We’re just glad that Newsbusters is also watching the mainstream media, and calling them like they see it.
WaPo Editorial Provides False Facts: Cites 90% Figure Again
An editorial doesn’t need to be unbiased, but it shouldn’t try to use information that has been proven false to make its point. In this weekend’s Washington Post editorial titled “Massacre in Mexico,” the paper cites this fact:
“Some 90 percent of the guns seized from operations against organized crime in Mexico come from the United States.”
As we have reported throughout 2009, this is false. Some 90 percent of guns seized in Mexico do NOT come from the United States. Let’s hope the media does a better job of reporting on these facts in 2010.
Gun Smuggling Called Huge Challenge
According to KSWT TV, the Arizona attorney general says that the U.S. could do a better job of stopping the flow of guns to Mexico, but we’ll ask a couple of questions.
First, how important really are American firearms to the Mexican cartels? Is there any proof that if America were to step up our efforts that the crime in Mexico would fall? Aren’t many of the guns actually from their own military? And about the flow of Chinese made firearms to Mexico? The news organization merely says, “many guns used by drug cartels in gun-restrictive Mexico are from the U.S.” But what percentage does “many” mean? The long reported number was wrong. In fact, it has been proven that less than 20 percent of firearms are from America – so how much good could our efforts do? Would it even reduce the crime by 20 percent? Probably not.
Second, what is Mexico going to do about the flow of drugs to America? That’s an issue that is seldom brought up when these stories are mentioned. Maybe we should work with Mexico to reduce the crime, and the gun issue will resolve itself.
Bi-National Panel Calls for “Ban” on Automatic Weapons
A bi-national panel of scholars and former – note the word former – government officials is calling for an American crackdown on firearms and urging the government to try to clamp down on the export of illegal guns and cash to Mexico. This brain trust also says Mexico needs “in turn must do more to stop to flow of illegal drugs and immigrants to the United States,” according to The Houston Chronicle. The paper further reports that the panel suggests the creation of unified and effective border police force.
Wait a second, isn’t part of the latter problem – that of illegal drugs and immigrants – is because of the corruption within the Mexican police, so why should we believe for even a second that a unified police force could even be trustworthy? We can’t.
But for this group of individuals to suggest we “reimpose” the ban on automatic weapons is silly. Silly, because automatic weapons are already extremely difficult to obtain legally in the United States. So either the paper or the report from this panel misunderstood automatic weapons with “assault weapons,” which were banned under President Clinton. And not to sound snide, but I think the United States should deal with the flow of the illegal drugs and illegal immigrants into this country and work to stop it. Let Mexico stop its own drug wars. When the drug pipeline closes, so will their gun problem.
Seizures Up at Border: AP Highlights Only Mexico’s Plight
Some interesting spin on the situation in the border lands this week. The Associated Press is noting that the seizures of cash and guns are up, and includes this passage:
“U.S. authorities on Tuesday reported a spike in seizures of guns and cash along the Mexican border since they began assigning more agents to stem the flow of southbound contraband.”
However, The San Diego Union Tribune gives a slightly different view of the picture, one that appears a little less biased. Notice that this story doesn’t paint it just as guns traveling to peaceful and hardworking Mexico (that part is a joke):
“Stepped-up enforcement efforts have led to more seizures of illegal drugs, guns and cash flowing back and forth across the US-Mexico”
We’d of course like to ask The Associated Press why they think guns were flowing south of the border? And why there is little mention of illegal drugs flowing north to American. Isn’t that the bigger issue? These guns are flowing to fight a gun war, and those drugs are flowing to our country. That’s the part we should be more concerned with frankly.
Further Proof That Straw Purchases Are Not Just an Easy Way For Criminal to Get Guns
The Las Vegas Sun is reporting that one man, Claudio Caesar Penunuri, has pleaded guilty to using straw buyers to purchase firearms. According to the paper Penunuri was trafficking guns to Mexico, but this just another example of how easy it is to catch straw buyers.
Yes, this remains an issue, but the mainstream media should take notice that criminals are being caught, and that law abiding citizens shouldn’t be held accountable just because of criminals such as Penunuri.
Human Addiction Permeates Canadian Double Murder
Kawku Grimpong is accused of shooting Ziad Ahmad and Phillip Salmon two years ago in Ottawa, Canada. The CBC is highlighting the fact that the weapon used by Grimpong was a “straw purchase” smuggled into Canada from the United States. The second paragraph of the story tells the reader what type of weapon was used and points out that the “pistol costs less than a base-model iPod in the U.S. The only inference one can draw from this is that Americans like cheap guns over cheap music players. What the story doesn’t highlight is the fact that human addiction, some state sponsored, runs rampant in this tragedy. Read more
Summer Recap: Top Gun Stories
So much has happened over the past couple of months that we felt it was time to do a quick recap. Here are some topics that we’d like to close the book on for good.
Gun and Ammo Sales Have Increased – OLD NEWS. This story started in the dead of winter in January as President Obama took office, picked up steam in the spring thaw and simmered all summer. Enough already.
Gun Buybacks Take Guns Off the Street – TOTAL SPIN. Have any criminals actually handed in their guns? No, more likely widows sold off extremely valuable firearms for a gift card at Costco. Gun buybacks didn’t take guns off the street, but it made for a nice photo opportunity.
Guns at Town Hall Meetings – TOTAL SPIN. No one brought a gun into a hall where the president was speaking (unless you count the Secret Service agents). Worse, the mainstream media has repeatedly claimed that people showed up with “loaded guns.” Did any reporter check the magazines to confirm?
U.S. Guns Fuel Mexican Drug War – OLD NEWS/TOTAL SPIN. Every day hundreds of illegal immigrants cross the border. Every day hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal drugs cross the border. Is this reported? No, because it is considered old news. So why does the mainstream media continue to report on the U.S. guns used in Mexico’s drug wars? And when will the media report that the numbers and statistics are totally wrong and off base? Probably not soon enough.
Mexico and Canada Still in the News, What About Europe and Asia?
Throughout the summer the American mainstream media took time to report on how American made firearms were supposedly fueling a drug war in Mexico, while the incidents of shootings in Canada was about because of American hardware.
Meanwhile, very little has been picked up in the States on the thousands of firearms seized in Australia and China – two nations were gun ownership is either difficult or impossible. For the record, private gun ownership in Communist China is entirely banned. And at the same time, unfortunately crime is up in the U.K., with cities like Manchester seeing a significant increase in gun crime in the past decade. However, this hardly gets any play in the United States.
The reason is likely crystal clear. In China, and in the U.K., it isn’t American guns that are in the hands of criminals. So for the MSM there is no story.
Gun Crime Up in Canada – Does That Mean Michael Moore Was Wrong?
What is this in the National Post from Canada? It claims that gun crime is up in the big city to our north, and that many of the guns are coming from the United States. Of course the mainstream media has jumped on the latter fact, while essentially ignoring the former fact. Slice it how you want, but gun crime is up and that is a fact. Criminals will get their hands on guns. And for the record, just 70 percent of the guns are even reportedly coming from America – and we have a feeling that number is as reliable as the now debunked 90 percent of guns used south of our border (in fact the final number is close to 17 percent in Mexico). So what’s the story? Deputy Chief Tony Warr had this to say in the article in the National Post?
“Ten or 15 years ago, a shooting was quite an event. Catching someone with a gun was quite an event. It’s not everyday but it’s a common event now. There seems to be more of a proliferation of guns.”
