Citizen-Times Editorial Offers Misleading Facts to Readers

Editorials are opinion pieces and therefore we don’t address the opinion, but will fire back at the misinformation. This past weekend, columnist John Boyle for the Asheville Citizen-Times offered misleading information in his editorial titled, “Assault rifles come roaring back in Asheville.” He starts off by shooting from the hip:

News flash: assault rifles are back. Big time.
How do I know this? Walmart is selling them.

He does take a moment to explain the assault weapon’s ban, and even notes that these are “military style,” but then he offers these two passages:

On the one hand, I can’t see why anybody really needs one of these blasters. They’re not practical for hunting, and in the wrong hands they’re powerful weapons capable of killing an awful lot of people at one time.
On the other hand, I can understand the allure of target shooting with them and holding that much power in your hands. And if you need to wipe out a colony of groundhogs, they’re a dream come true.

The first part is misleading, while neither statement really notes that these guns are practical for target shooting. Time and time again, anti-gun types as well as those who don’t understand the issue seem to think this merely comes down to “hunters.” There is much more than hunting. But any gun is dangerous in the wrong hands, as is a car or a whole lot of other things.

The anti-gun crowd manages to forget that the biggest mass killing in this country were in Oklahoma City and New York City, and those terrorists never pulled the trigger during those events. But do we ban commercial fertilizer or flying on commercial airlines? No, we do not.

The editorial then goes on to quote both the Brady Campaign and the NRA as to add balance, but it is the Brady Campaign’s statements that leave the bigger mark. Consider what the Brady Campaign offered:

“I think what’s happening is the gun industry is pushing these militarized rifles, and they’re marketing them to folks like you who are already gun owners, trying to get them in into these military style guns — they’re trying to normalize them,” said Dennis Henigan, acting president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, D.C.
“They’ve tried to sell this myth that somehow these are legitimate hunting weapons, and they love to find instances where hunters use them.”

Again, even the biggest anti-gun zealots use the “hunting” word to discredit the guns. There are people that like to shoot at the range, and the Brady Campaign ignores this. However, Boyle makes sure to provide more anti-gun opinion from Henigan for good measure:

“It’s just a matter of time before we have another one of these mass shootings involving an assault rifle,” Henigan said.

This is presented as an absolute fact and we don’t know this. It is just a matter of time until a major earthquake hits some part of the country, but we still build houses. It is just a matter of time until there is another airplane crash, and people still fly. So why would we ban an item from law-abiding citizens because there could eventually be another mass shooting?

In the end this is still an opinion piece, but the argument fails to make its point – but that never seems to stop anti-gun types unfortunately.

Henigan Huffs and Puffs: A Gun Lobby Bill That Conservatives Should Hate

Writing for the Huffington Post this week, Brady Campaign President Dennis A. Henigan in a piece titled, “A Gun Lobby Bill That Conservatives Should Hate,” suggests that H.R. 822 is against states rights and therefore true conservatives should hate it.

This again is just another attempt to suggest that conservatives are completely rigid in thinking. Of course Henigan offers some other compelling statements:

Is it a bill to ban the high-capacity assault clips that allowed Jared Loughner, in a span of around sixteen seconds, to kill six people…

We all due respect to those involved, there never has been an assault clip until the Brady Campaign coined the term. But Henigan had more to offer too:

The legislation recently passed by the House would allow the Jared Loughners of the world to carry their loaded, hidden handguns virtually anywhere in the country.

The truth is that Loughners of the world, as well as the gangsters in our urban centers, already carry guns anywhere and everywhere they want. Henigan just fails to note that all you need to do to carry a gun is have one, and of course, be willing to break the law. H.R. 822 only applies to law-abiding citizens.

And later in the same editorial Henigan tries the divide and conquer approach:

Conservatives don’t have to believe that concealed carry of loaded guns in public places poses unacceptable risks in order to be opposed to H.R. 822. Principled conservatives — even those who think concealed carry is a positive good — should be driven to the same conclusion.

While it may be bad for state’s rights, it is good for gun owner’s rights. The fact is that this is a democracy with compromises and conservatives can see that point, the truth is that anti-gun zealots are the one who twist logic and facts to take away any right involving guns – whether at the national, state or community level!

Dennis Henigan: Actually, Guns Do Kill People

Writing for The Huffington Post this week, Dennis A. Henigan, acting president of the Brady Campaign offered an editorial titled, “Actually, Guns Do Kill People.” Henigan tries to suggest that America’s loose gun laws result in more murders, thus offering the thought that guns do kill people. He uses the recent tragic camp shooting in Norway to show how these events could happen here.

But he actually makes a statement that suggests otherwise. Henigan writes:

“Norway has a restrictive gun licensing system, with a requirement that a prospective gun owner provide a written statement justifying why he or she wants one and stiff restrictions on how guns are stored.”

Now we bring this up, because the shooting still occurred. Why wouldn’t we think the same thing could happen if the United States adopted “restrictive gun licensing?” Chicago and Washington, D.C. are examples that Henigan and other anti-gun types never really mention. Both have a lot of gun crime yet “restrictive gun licensing.” Doesn’t that fact show that criminals intent on doing harm will find a way to do so?

Firing Back: Is Gun Control Agenda Really “Under the Radar” Now?

Last week Dennis A. Henigan, writing for The Huffington Post asked, “Is Obama Ready to Take on the Gun Lobby?” The answer is, he is already doing so. It wasn’t that long ago that President Obama said to Sarah Brady that he was working on gun control, but “under the radar.”

So when Henigan, acting president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the same group that was founded by Sarah Brady asks that pointed question we say it is nothing but a smoke screen. Meanwhile the POTUS has imposed tighter restrictions on the sale of guns in four border states.

Thus, President Obama isn’t working on gun control under the radar, he is doing it in the open, and yet his anti-gun allies are trying to make it seem like this isn’t the case. This is a shameful example of how this administration ignores the Constitution and the Second Amendment.

Dennis A. Henigan Says NRA in “Carefully Constructed Parallel Universe”

Writing for the Huffington Post, Dennis A. Henigan, Brady Center Vice President,” noted that the NRA is in a “carefully constructed parallel universe.” This serves as the introduction for a piece that tries to suggest that lax gun laws credited the situation that allowed Jared Loughner to commit the mass shooting in Tucson.

So what we think is that Henigan, and other anti-gun zealots, are in fact the ones living in a carefully constructed parallel universe, where guns are the blame for all the problems. The NRA and those of us who respect the law live in the United States of America.

Dennis A. Henigan Huffs and Puffs About Obama Gun Policy

Last week the Brady Center fired back at President Obama with a press release noting that the POTUS should appoint a new director to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. This was followed by a post from Brady Center Vice President and author Dennis A. Henigan on the Huffington Post. Read more

Huff and Puff Looks at “More Guns = Less Crime” Argument With Shaky Logic

In writing for the Huffington Post, Dennis A. Henigan, Brady Center Vice President and author of Lethal Logic attempts to question the concept of “more guns = less crime.” Maybe he missed the fact that gun ownership continues to climb, yet crime is down? Instead he offers some interesting, but flawed points. Read more

Huffington Post Huffs and Puffs Again About NRA

In a recent piece for the liberal Huffington Post, Dennis A. Henigan (a noted anti-gun zealot) calls out the NRA, claiming there is no “cultural issue,” and notes:

“The core of the gun lobby’s strategy is to use fear tactics to keep gun owners in a constant state of agitation so that they can be activated to oppose even modest gun law reforms.”

Does he not understand the NRA, or the purpose of a lobby group? It seems so, and as a lobbyist himself, Henigan’s article would be laughable, were it not just a piece meant to put the NRA in a negative light. The NRA can never let down its guard on the issue of gun laws, because if it does so, the very freedoms it stands to protect could be taken away.

The media notes, and Henigan’s own group The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence often reports that Obama and the Democrats in Congress haven’t attempted new legislation on firearm ownership. But this doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen. And Henigan clearly has an agenda, which is to let the NRA and others drop their guard, so that very legislation could be brought up.