Brady Bunch Use Martin Shooting to Cry for Gun Control
Never let a crisis go to waste. That mantra from President Obama’s administration is also used freely by gun control groups. And this week the Huffington Post noted that the Brady Campaign is using the shooting death of Trayvon Martin to call for gun control. The story noted:
The Brady Campaign petition states that Americans demand basic freedoms in their daily life, including the ability “to go to the store and buy Skittles and an iced tea without getting shot.” Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, shot Martin in what he says was an act of self-defense. Martin was unarmed and carrying a bag of Skittles and an iced tea.
People who sign on to the petition pledge to hold accountable any elected official who “puts guns in the hands of dangerous people — people like George Zimmerman, the man who killed Trayvon Martin.” The petition says Zimmerman had an arrest record and a history of violence, yet was still allowed to carry a concealed and loaded gun.
It is interesting that this reporting basically paints a very black and white version of events, even before Mr. Zimmerman has his day in court. While quoting the petition, Zimmerman is still labeled “dangerous.” Good to see that gun control groups show their true colors – as the facts don’t need to be made clear. Because that could let a crisis go to waste.
Bloomberg Calls Florida “Gunshine State” – Blames GOP
Last week the typically anti-gun news outlet Bloomberg – which was founded by anti-gun zealot Michael Bloomberg – offered an insulting anti-gun hit piece guised as news titled, “Florida Turns ‘Gunshine State’ After Years of Republican Control.”
The article offered a quote that basically sums up the tone of the story:
“The goal of the gun lobby is to make Florida their armed utopia and spread that mentality nationally,” said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
This is the typical nonsense: another attempt to suggest that the gun lobby, led by the NRA, is some nefarious cabal that is destroying America in the process to turn it into a land of violence and mayhem. The truth is that the power of the NRA and the gun lobby as a whole is the will of the people.
Examiner: Obama kills one teen while mourning another
Last weekend Examiner’s Jack Cole for Tampa Social Issues Examiner, offered an interesting piece titled, “Obama kills one teen while mourning another, critics explain.” It is a thought-provoking piece that shows what an opportunist the POTUS really is, and how he truly never lets a crisis go to waste.
Cole writes:
On February 26, 2012, according to reports, Trayvon Martin was gunned down and killed in Florida. Martin, age 17, was found unarmed. Being a black teenager from Florida, his death made national headlines. This has resulted in a cable news media frenzy. There is much controversy regarding his death but one thing is certain:
The opportunistic President Obama and propaganda-filled media wasted no time using this tragedy to further racially divide this country. Read more
Paul Krugman Takes on “Lobbyists, guns and money”
There is no surprise that writer Paul Krugman is anti-guns. But last week in a column for the San Jose Mercury News he basically blamed the gun lobby for the death of Travyon Martin:
Florida’s now-infamous Stand Your Ground law, which lets you shoot someone you consider threatening without facing arrest, let alone prosecution, sounds crazy — and it is. It’s tempting to dismiss this law as the work of ignorant yahoos. But similar laws have been pushed across the nation, not by ignorant yahoos, but by big corporations.
Specifically, language virtually identical to Florida’s law is featured in a template supplied to legislators in other states by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-backed organization that has managed to keep a low profile even as it exerts vast influence (only recently, thanks to yeoman work by the Center for Media and Democracy, has a clear picture of ALEC’s activities emerged). And if there is any silver lining to Trayvon Martin’s killing, it is that it may finally place a spotlight on what ALEC is doing to our society — and our democracy.
It is also interesting that Krugman notes “our democracy” in his passage – but like many anti-gun types he believes he speaks for the country as a whole.
Allvoices Doesn’t Quite Tell Whole Story
This week the news site AllVoices.com offered a story titled, “Texas Gun group adds to the fray: offers $10,000 for Zimmerman’s legal defense.” It noted the fact that “pro-gun groups have also offered to assist in Zimmerman’s legal defense,” and this news was all covered with this opening line:
Yet another controversial angle has been added to the Trayvon Martin tragedy.
That to us sounds like a bit of anti-Zimmerman slant to the piece, but then it ends with this paragraph:
Meanwhile the Black Panthers bounty on the 28 year old shooter of 17 year old Trayvon Martin, has allegedly risen to $12,000. Speaking on CNN last Wednesday, a member of that group said they were getting donations from athletes and celebrities and were willing to raise the bounty to $1 million.
While they did use the word “bounty” this news feature once again fails to mention that the Black Panthers essentially offered this for a man who hasn’t – at least not yet – been charged with anything. It is interesting that this story shows some outrage over Zimmerman getting legal defense aid, yet the fact that a “bounty” has been placed on a private citizen is causing little if any of the same outrage!
Malaysian Insider Calls out “America’s Wild West gun laws”
Given the violence, repression and high rates of crime in some parts of the world there is irony that the Malaysian Insider would suggest that America is such a dangerous place. This past week it offered a story titled, “America’s Wild West gun laws.” In it the author wrote:
The killing of a black teenager by a self-appointed vigilante in Florida has trained a spotlight on gun laws reminiscent of the Wild West in 24 US states. Despite widespread outrage over the Florida case, gun-friendly senators in Washington want to make it easier to extend those laws to most of the country.
That would set the United States, where there are more firearms in private hands than in any other country, even farther apart from the rest of the industrialized world as far as guns are concerned. And it would mark yet another success for the National Rifle Association (NRA) in its long campaign against gun controls.
It is fascinating how this reporting can take an issue and make it all so black and white.
Boston Herald Throws in Some Anti-Gun Bias with “Stand Your Ground” Reporting
When news offers much opinion it isn’t news anymore. This is common when firearms are the subject, and case in point is a story titled, “’Stand your ground’ coming to Bay State?” from the Boston Globe, which noted:
State Sen. Stephen Brewer has the gun-control lobby fuming over his proposal for a “stand your ground” self-defense law — a bill that would bring to Massachusetts the same legal protection that has activists nationwide screaming for the arrest of a Florida man who gunned down an unarmed teen last month.
While the case has gotten a lot of attention, is it fair at this point to suggest that George Zimmerman “gunned down an unarmed teen” (Trayvon Martin). Zimmerman hasn’t been tried yet, but the above paragraph seems to disregard that fact.
Where is Outrage Over “Panther Bounty”?
While the media has widely cover the Trayvon Martin shooting – to the point that Fox News Watch even asked whether it is really even a “national story,” this past weekend there was another twist reported The Florida Times-Union in a story that says it all. The piece titled, “Panther leader offers $10,000 bounty for ‘capture’ of Sanford shooter,” offered this passage:
Members of the New Black Panther Party are offering a $10,000 reward for the “capture” of the man who fatally shot teenager Trayvon Martin, leader Mikhail Muhammad said during a protest in Sanford Saturday.
Muhammad said members of his group would search in Maitland and Jacksonville for George Zimmerman, 28, who told police he was defending himself last month when he shot Martin, who was unarmed. Zimmerman, who has not been charged with a crime, was reported to have worked in Jacksonville until recently.
“If the government won’t do the job, we’ll do it,” Muhammad said, leading his group of eight party members in chants like “freedom or death” and “justice for Trayvon.”
The question here is why isn’t this story being picked up in the mainstream media? While Zimmerman maybe guilty of so-called vigilante justice, clearly Muhammad is no better. And is it really “justice” if there is a bounty for a man already under investigation?
NAACP Targets Guns
This week the Asbury Park Press offered a story titled, “NAACP targets racist thinking, gun violence,” and essentially called up a “race card” type of thinking, and noted:
That 17-year-old Miami student Trayvon Martin was shot and killed evokes the racist thinking that because a young person is black he must be up to no good, Shore area civil rights leaders said Wednesday.
That Sanford, Fla., police have not yet charged the shooter, neighborhood watch leader George Zimmerman, 28, who is Hispanic, speaks to a historical injustice for black victims, easy access to guns, triggers pulled too easily and expanded self-defense claims, other leaders said.
The interesting part about the argument, from both the writer and the NAACP in this case is that many of the gun laws on the books – especially in the south – were a way to keep guns out of the hands of black people. So is it racist if there are gun laws, and racists if there are not gun laws? Can it be both?
Trayvon Martin Shooting Sparks Outrage – But Misses Points
Trayvon Martin is dead, and that is just plain wrong on so many levels. Here is a young man who should have a had a bright future. What is amazing however is that the anti-gun media is blaming the NRA for his death.
CNN offered the headline: Killing shows flaws of NRA-backed law
Mother Jones claimed: The NRA Wants the Law Protecting Trayvon Martin’s Killer in All 50 States
America Blog: Trayvon Martin and the so-called “Castle Doctrine” — How the NRA “got its way” in 2006
The Giro: NRA relationship with Florida a big reason Zimmerman remains free
That is just a sampling of articles calling out this tragic shooting.
But let’s consider all the stories of how guns save the owners when someone legitimately attacks them, breaks into their house or otherwise tries to actually harm them. The media NEVER rallies around and FOR the law then.
And there is another point, it isn’t “lax gun laws,” or the “NRA” getting its way, this is about the criminal element too. Every single time something bad happens, the anti-gun crowd tries to blame the guns, not the criminal. But let’s also consider that criminals don’t heed the law, they aren’t deterred by gun bans, or restrictive gun laws. Those only – ONLY – affect the law-abiding.
