Media Mostly Ignores Gun Crime Drops in Virginia Bars and Restaurants
The Richmond Times-Dispatch offered a story this past weekend, and the news was not really all that surprising. What is more surprising is that the media seems to ignore it, possibly because they predicted the opposite. The paper offered this reporting:
“Virginia’s bars and restaurants did not turn into shooting galleries as some had feared during the first year of a new state law that allows patrons with permits to carry concealed guns into alcohol-serving businesses, a Richmond Times-Dispatch analysis found.”
Not only did the bars not turn into shooting galleries, but crime was in fact down as the paper notes:
“The number of major crimes involving firearms at bars and restaurants statewide declined 5.2 percent from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011, compared with the fiscal year before the law went into effect, according to crime data compiled by Virginia State Police at the newspaper’s request.”
The question is whether this story will continue to be ignored? We suspect that if this had been the opposite and crime increased the media would have been all over this story.
Who Guards The Guards: Police Pull Guns in Two Unrelated Incidents!
Talk to any anti-firearm zealot and they’ll likely tell you that if guns were banned, no one would ever have to stare down the barrel again. But what if the police are still armed? Couldn’t a police officer then break the law and aim a gun at you – say in a bar? Well, this happened not once but twice this past weekend.
The Associated Press, via The Dallas Morning News reported:
“An off-duty police officer is accused of hitting two bar workers and pulling a gun on them because they refused to let him back inside after closing. Sgt. Hector Roa, 37, was charged Sunday with two counts of aggravated assault, Dallas police said.”
Meanwhile, to the north, in Tulsa, KTUL noted:
“A Tulsa Police officer is suspended with pay after he pulls a gun near a bar. It happened early Saturday morning at a bar near 17th and Boston. According to arrest reports, 33-year-old officer Thomas Fees was asked to leave the bar after a disturbance.” Read more
