New Civil Rights Movement Offers Shameful Headline; Misleading Facts
This week The New Civil Rights Movement ran a story titled, “GOP Now Pushing For Guns in Kindergarten Classes.” That sounds ominous, sinister and really scary. But is it factual?
Not by a long shot – pun intended. The story doesn’t even do actual reporting, but turns to left-leaning Think Progress, which reported:
Conservatives have twisted school massacres at Columbine and Virginia Tech to argue that there need to be more guns in schools to fight back against armed attacks. Last year more than a dozenstate legislatures took up bills that would allow guns on college campuses — and some even considered lifting their gun bans at K-12 public schools. Florida suspended discussion of their controversial bill after the emotional testimony of a father whose daughter was killed at Florida State University when another student accidentally discharged a rifle.
In other words, no this is misleading, twisting and actually the worst example of “journalism” that we’ve seen in a while.
The author also makes a bold statement:
Almost 10,000 people are killed by someone with a gun every year in America. Given the loosening of gun laws by the GOP, these numbers will escalate.
First, that number is actually a tad high. Likewise, the statement by the author that “these numbers will escalate,” is based on opinion not fact. There is no source to this, and the truth is that gun ownership is on the rise and the murder rates – along with crime overall – have fallen. The opposite is happening, but this doesn’t seem to mater.
And this story, which offers the guise of news, ends with a truly disgusting closing statement:
Oh, and a word to journalists: CAn [sic] we please stop calling it “gun rights”? Guns don’t have rights, people do. Let’s just be honest and call it “attempts to expand deadly weapons usage.”
Sorry, but we are journalists and we find this sort of statement to be obnoxious, inaccurate and distasteful. People do have rights, and according to the Second Amendment that includes the Right to Bear Arms!
Arkansas Blog “Thanks NRA” for “Felons regaining gun rights”
Maybe there are those outside New York who think New Yorkers know it best. This week Arkansas Blog also picked up on the story from The New York Times that noted that felons are regaining gun rights. So how did Arkansas Blog play it?
They offered this snide headline, “Felons regaining run rights,” which isn’t quite accurate. This would suggest that any convicted felon could get gun rights back, and the blog post, which mostly just cites NY Times copy, starts out with this line:
More to thank the National Rifle Association for:
So rather than offer real commentary on the issue, this is what passes for “reporting” these days.
ThirdAge.com Just Parrots NY Times Story
We noted this week that The New York Times offered a biased story on how felons can easily regain firearm rights, and the terrible things that happen. ThirdAge.com picked up the story as its own, suggesting this was from a formal study. The article, titled “Gun Politics: Report Shows Felons Legally Obtaining Firearms,” treats the Times’ copy as if it is an actual report.
What is missing is the fact that criminals could easily obtain illegal guns and skip the whole process, and likely do! This point is never mentioned, nor as we noted previously is it ever mentioned that the vast majority of those do get their rights back never cause a problem.
Of course the media doesn’t want to report that part of the story.
Gun Rights Policies with John Snyder: Gun Rights Policies with John Snyder
“The economic problems and the government firearm scandal are two sides of the same coin,” says gun rights expert John M. Snyder.
Snyder is the Gun Dean, according to Human Events. Read more
John M. Snyder: Gun Rights Activists Should Meet Congressmen during Summer Recess
Family Security Matters: Gun Rights Require Eternal Vigilance
This past weekend the site Family Security Matters offered a solid editorial on why “Gun Rights Require Eternal Vigilance,” noting that much of the problem with the perception of guns is how crime and gun control are painted by the media. Writing for Family Security Matters, Bob Smith offers this thought:
“The right to keep and bear arms is as clear and concise as any amendment to the Constitution, yet the liberal media attacks it constantly. It is wrong to restrict the press, but right to restrict the right to bear arms. There is no logic to this argument and it is totally unconstitutional, yet the media assault is relentless. Not only does the media hypocrisy aggressively promote gun restrictions on law abiding American citizens, it gives sensationalistic coverage to every crime committed with a gun. High school and office shootings, armed attacks on police and all gun crimes are treated as if every American citizen who owns a gun is likely to commit one of these horrific acts. The truth is that all of us have the right to own a gun to protect ourselves from these ‘crazies’ who commit these crimes.”
Unfortunately the media doesn’t see it this way. They don’t see that freedom to own guns is equal to freedom of press, and they do look for those sensational stories because if “it bleeds it leads,” remains the way newsrooms work.
The Atlantic: Secret History of Guns
This week The Atlantic offered an interesting read, titled “The Secret History of Guns.” Here is the overview:
“The Ku Klux Klan, Ronald Reagan, and, for most of its history, the NRA all worked to control guns. The Founding Fathers? They required gun ownership—and regulated it. And no group has more fiercely advocated the right to bear loaded weapons in public than the Black Panthers—the true pioneers of the modern pro-gun movement. In the battle over gun rights in America, both sides have distorted history and the law, and there’s no resolution in sight.”
It is also worth noting that the article is adapted from Adam Winkler’s forthcoming book, Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America, to be published by W. W. Norton in September. It could be one worth reading.
Same Article, Different HIGHLY BIASED Title
We noted that Stewart M. Powell’s article, titled “Except for truck, gun control push going nowhere,” which ran in the San Francisco Chronicle, was originally written for the Houston Chronicle.
We checked to see if the original version had the same biased title. It did not. It was worse:
“Tragedies have little sway on nation’s gun laws”
What this author and those who helped craft this title seem not to understand is that violent people will always find a way to commit violent crimes.
However, the Houston Chronicle version, did make clear one point typically missing in mainstream media coverage. It notes:
“The National Rifle Association continues to exercise clout across the political landscape. Founded in 1871 to improve marksmanship, the NRA’s political juggernaut today is built upon nearly 4 million members who stand ready to respond to the organization’s mantra, ‘vote freedom first.’”
Finally, someone explains that the NRA has a strong membership with a voting agenda. Of course we think there are those who would question whether this stance is justified. But those calling for gun control don’t really care about freedom.
Reagan was For Gun-Control?
Our friends at Newsbusters noted last week that “CNN Contributor Avlon Invokes Reagan in Pro-Gun Control Column.” It seems that John Avlon of CNN, like many mainstream media outlets last week, noted that the NRA refused to sit down with President Obama.
What makes Avlon’s commentary interesting is that it tries to paint President Ronald Reagan as being for gun control. And somehow Republicans and the NRA have lost their way. Nonsense. Kudos to Newsbusters for catching this story.
New York Times Shows Lack of Understanding of America Again
In a New York Times editorial titled “School of Glock,” columnist Gail Collins writes the following passage, and it shows how out of touch New York City’s journalists can be with the rest of the country:
“It’s been nearly nine weeks since that tragic shooting in Tucson, and you may be wondering whether there’s been any gun legislation proposed in the aftermath.”
Let’s consider a couple of points. First, in New York City gun legislation is pretty much already on the books. The high-capacity magazines she rallies against are already banned in the city, and as we’ve long reported unless you are rich and famous forget about getting a Glock or any other handgun easily. It is an expensive and time consuming process to “legally” obtain a firearm.
Second Collins isn’t really concerned with reasonable gun legislation either, as she writes:
“The gun lobby will never be happy, unless the health care law specifically requires every American to have a pistol on his or her person at all times.”
Thus her editorial isn’t about reasonable gun laws, it is a rant about why House Republicans are trying to overturn Obamacare and she’s using guns an excuse.
So what this really says is that like many New Yorkers she doesn’t really get the “real” America west of the Hudson River. But yet, she also doesn’t address how to solve the problem of illegal guns in the city. Perhaps she really believes, much like the city’s misguided mayor, that taking away guns from law-abiding citizens in other states will somehow solve New York’s problems.
