Mayors Against Illegal Guns Goes to the Super Bowl
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino will reportedly appear in a pro-gun control ad during the Super Bowl. Of course this publicity stunt is occurring as New York and New England’s teams appearing in the big game.
It should be noted that the 30 second ad will cost some $3 million dollars – so anyone who says that the NRA pushes its pro-gun message unfairly should consider the money that these super rich anti-gun zealots are throwing at their cause.
But let’s consider some too some of the media coverage so far.
The New York Times: “During Super Bowl, for 30 Seconds, 2 Mayors Will Be on Same Side,” which offers this passage:
The half-minute ad features Mr. Bloomberg and Boston’s mayor, Thomas M. Menino, ribbing each other as they cheer for their respective teams and cities. But then they turn to the purpose of their spot, declaring that one thing they agree on is the need for stricter federal gun control laws.
The New York Post: “Mayor Bloomberg to run anti-illegal gun ad during Super Bowl”
The Associated Press via The Wall Street Journal : “NYC, Boston mayors team up in gun-control ad”
All this is interesting in the way it suggests it is about “illegal guns” and how the mayors are “teaming up” and are “on the same side,” but never notes that this is against what many gun owners want. Of course do these rich anti-gun zealots care.
It should be noted that the ad will only appear in select markets and not nationally due to rules on “cause related” ads.
Does WaPo Not Care About Fast and Furious
We noted since launching FirearmsTurth.com that The Washington Post regularly blamed American guns for Mexico’s violence, but then a strange thing happened. Fast and Furious came to light and WaPo shut up about it. Now the paper does report on it from time to time, but consider this recent example, “House Democrats say Phoenix ATF to blame in ‘Fast and Furious’ fiasco.” We can almost hear a collective sigh of relief.
Over the past year WaPo has ignored the story a bit, blamed Bush as much as it could and now offers a lengthy feature story that seems to give President Obama and Eric Holder a pass.
The story notes:
Federal agents based in Phoenix, not officials at Justice Department headquarters in Washington, were responsible for the controversial tactics used in the gun operation known as “Fast and Furious,” Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said in a report released Tuesday.
A year after it became known that the operation relied on a tactic known as gun walking, the 89-page report called Fast and Furious “reckless and fatally flawed.” It puts the blame squarely on the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It also concludes that the strategy began as early as 2006.
While this is newsworthy of course, we wonder why this story is getting pick up now, and note that this report is just from one side. It is hardly the final word on the matter. And of course it offers the “Blame Bush” card. Only deep into the story does WaPo note:
Issa called the report’s conclusions a “flawed view that the Justice Department should be given the full benefit of the doubt despite a lengthy record of false statements, misdirection and a continued refusal to turn over subpoenaed evidence.”
So let’s see, offer a headline that blames the Phoenix ATF and bury any counterpoint. Sounds like journalism at its finest – yellow journalism that is.
Is Partisan Politics Polarizing Fast and Furious Hearings?
First it was “Blame Bush” and now it seems the media is ready to readily accept the findings of Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. This week USA Today noted with a biased headline, “Report: Agents, not Justice Dept. to blame in Fast and Furious“:
A U.S. House minority report on the gun-smuggling probe known as Fast and Furious blames federal agents in Arizona for the flawed operation while exonerating top-level Justice Department officials.
The 89-page analysis, released Tuesday by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., ranking minority member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is based upon five congressional hearings, testimony from 22 witnesses and about 12,000 pages of documents.
Its conclusion: “Operation Fast and Furious was the latest in a series of fatally flawed operations run by ATF agents in Phoenix and the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office.
And there you have it. The media has ignored the story for months, but now that the blame can be cast away – far away from President Obama and his henchman Eric Holder – the media has decided this is a story worth covering!
Fast and Furious: Is it Partisan Politics at Play?
This week The New York Times showed how divided the nation truly is, and nowhere more so than the nation’s capitol building:
Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday are expected to publish a report on the disputed gun trafficking investigation called Operation Fast and Furious, concluding that agents in Arizona — not Obama administration officials — were responsible for the tactics used in the inquiry and for providing misleading information relayed to Congress.
Of course this argument is more of the “Blame Bush” strategy that we’ve seen for months, and it is an attempt to distance President Obama as well as Attorney General Eric Holder from Fast and Furious. But the question still remains, even if Holder didn’t know (which according to recent information seems hard to believe), why didn’t he know?
NRA News: The Gun Store’s Chris Irwin Expresses His Disappointment with the UFC and Fox
Cam Edwards talks to Chris Irwin from The Gun Store in Las Vegas
NRA News: Rep. Blake Farenthold on Friday Night Fast and Furious Document Dump
Ginny Simone talks to Congressman Blake Farenthold (R-TX)
Patch.com Piece Tries to Tie Gun Buybacks and Lower Crime Together
Much of the country has seen a decline in crime, while gun sales continue to soar. And yet this week Patch.com noted that Brooklyn held a gun buyback, in which “over 100 firearms were surrendered to the NYPD,” and noted that crime is down.
The article, titled, “Brooklyn Sees Lowest Murder Rate Since 1963” offered this passage:
The NYPD/Clergy Gun Buy-Back program, which has been running since 2008, has helped remove 7,600 weapons from the streets.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Brooklyn is now safer, and he has statistics to prove it.
We have to ask, does the gun buyback program have anything to do with it? Maybe a tiny small part, but couldn’t it be that many of the neighborhoods in Brooklyn have been transformed by gentrification also in no small part the reason for the drop in crime. There has been a renaissance in many parts of Brooklyn over the past decade.
It is just interesting that this aspect hasn’t been addressed.
NY Post: “A Fast & Furious fib”
Could it be that Eric Holder was lying? Actually we already think most of what comes of his mouth comes out of another part of a male cow, but that’s not just our opinion it seems. Writing for The New York Post over the weekend, Michael A. Walsh offered this commentary:
It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup, goes the old Washington cliché. In the case of the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal, it’s both.
As Attorney General Eric Holder gets ready to face more congressional grilling Thursday, something’s clearly rotten at the Justice Department. The stench goes all the way to the top — to Holder.
Walsh noted that according to new emails Holder had known about Fast and Furious all along. Walsh closes this piece noting:
With a tough re-election fight, President Obama doesn’t need F&F to become a campaign issue. But surely even he realizes that the nation has had enough of Holder’s polarizing tenure at Justice. Given a choice between himself and Holder . . . well, there’s always room for one more under the Obama bus.
We agree with Walsh, except we have to note… the media has been mum on this story. The mainstream media doesn’t want this story to get out. And that makes it all the more important for the story to be told.
Documents Say DOJ Knew Of Fast And Furious Connection Day After Terry Murder
David Codrea:
Email from aide appears to demonstrate Holder perjury
“Emails Show How ‘Fast and Furious’ Ambush News Unfolded At Justice Dept.,” NPR reports tonight.
“For the first time, the Justice Department has made public a series of sensitive messages that passed to the highest levels of the agency within hours of an ambush that killed a U.S. border patrol agent…The email messages show the former top federal prosecutor in Arizona, Dennis Burke, notifying an aide to Holder via email on Dec. 15, 2010 that agent Brian Terry had been wounded and died. ‘Tragic,’ responds the aide, Monty Wilkinson. ‘I’ve alerted the AG, the acting Deputy Attorney General…’”
This correspondent was on the phone with Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars a few hours ago ths evening, shortly before the NPR release. From Vanderboegh’s assessment:
“White House dumps 500 plus pages of documents tonight…NPR was apparently the preferred outlet for the dump…Holder is screwed. Of course the only reason they’re doing this is to further the modified limited hangout, which now apparently includes Eric Holder. Remember, these are the emails that the WH WANTED to release. What does that tell us? That they’re protecting the White House and are willing to dispose of Holder to do it.”
Continue reading on Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/documents-say-doj-knew-of-fast-and-furious-connection-day-after-terry-murder
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He is a field editor for GUNS Magazine, and a blogger at The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance. Read more at www.DavidCodrea.com.
Richard Times-Dispatch Fact Checks Rep. Jim Moran
The Richmond Times-Dispatch noted that earlier this month Rep. Jim Moran stated that the U.S. gun homicide rate was 20 higher than other western nations, and used this as a call for gun control. We always wonder how “gun control” is the answer as even places with gun control still have crime.
The paper actually rated his statement in a PolitiFact check column as “mostly true,” reporting:
If you compare the most recent data on the same group of nations, mostly based on 2009 statistics, the U.S. gun homicide rate is 15 times higher then the other countries. The number fell 10 times as high when we defined the inexact term of “western nations” as countries belonging to NATO.
So Moran’s figures are outdated and on the high side. His terminology is loose. But his point — that gun homicide rates in the U.S. tower over those of other wealthy European nations — holds up.
So his statement is “mostly true,” but even the fact check doesn’t offer all the facts. Consider that the United States was involved in two World Wars in the 20th century but has been able to avoid a full-out invasion of the nation since the War of 1812. The last major war fought on American soil was the American Civil War, which ended in 1865. While it is only debatable what issues guns had in our defense, our commitment to firearms ensures that our military is up to the task. When the Civil War came soldiers on both sides (tragically we should add) knew how to use guns.
When the Spanish-American War came, our military was small but volunteers swelled the ranks and these volunteers knew how to shoot. The same thing happened again in World War I and World War II.
But let’s also consider that Germany and Japan, two nations that have lower gun crime, fell victims to dictatorships. Both were democracies in the truth sense and yet became dictatorships, in part because there was no hope for the people to fight back.
Finally, we circle back to the issue of crime. The U.S. gun homicide rate maybe large, but crime has been falling in the United States and gun crime has been rising in places that have banned guns. So what does that say about the facts?
