Digital Journal Offers Insight on U.S. Gun Laws

Writing this week for Digital Journal, Christopher Wager, in an op-ed titled, “How Does Virginia Tech affect U.S. gun laws?” notes that the ATF enforces laws, and does not create or draft those laws. Wager writes:

The ATF is responsible, not for legislating gun control laws or arguing the second amendment, but for enforcement. One of the primary functions of the ATF is to enforce gun control through inspections of sellers, dealers, and importers. Also, it is spelled out to dealers and resellers who may own a gun and who may not. For example, those with a police or federal crime record, and those with a mental disability are among those who cannot. In addition, it is the business of the FBI to insure background check are being done.

But even when crimes are committed, such as last week’s tragic shooting at Virginia Tech, the role of the ATF needs to be considered. Wager adds:

Police officers and gun dealers, nor the ATF can begin to speculate the intention of a person to do harm at any given moment, regardless of their weapon, a car, a gun, or a knife. Society will never be able to fully protect itself.

This is one of many interesting points Wager makes, and one that many anti-gun zealots seem to forget.

MSNBC’s Mika Brezinski Says “Gun Show Loophole Was Closed”

How do you trust a reporter that doesn’t know the facts? Well, Mike Brezinksi of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” often makes strange gaffes – she once stated that “Abraham Lincoln” was her favorite Founding Father, despite the fact that Honest Abe was born in 1809, some 33 years after the Declaration of Independence.

So what do you make of the recent discussion she had with panelists on the show that discussed the gun show loophole. According to our friends at Newsbusters.org, which followed this story, Brezinksi’s husband, an investigative reporter, had bought several AK-47s at a Virginia gun show in an effort to prove how it easy it is to obtain the small arm.

During the segment another panelist noted: “A loophole was closed for a while.”

Brezinski replied, “right.”To which Barnicle said, “and then re-opened when they let the law lapse a couple of years ago.” Brezinski said, “that’s correct. That’s correct.”

Except, it isn’t correct. There was no ban of private sales. B&B (Brezinski and Barnicle) confused this with the assault weapons ban. That’s something entirely different.

But some other notable issues with this debate. During the segment Brezinski looks at the camera and says, “Just close the loophole. Governor Bob McDonnell.”

McDonnell is of course the governor of Virginia. Should a co-host of a news program comment like this, or worse command a politician? And exactly how should McDonnell go about doing such a thing?

Finally, even co-host Joe Scarborough got in on the act, and noted the following:

“Five times to go into the gun show and had nothing but his photo ID from Virginia Tech, and was able to fill up a trunk with semi-automatic weapons. The killings in the New York and New Jersey and the Northeast are traced to those Virginia gun shows. Like I said, the drug wars are being armed, the most dangerous terrorists in our hemisphere, the drug kingpins, are being armed by Arizona gun show laws – c’mon. 90 percent of Americans don’t want this to continue. 90 percent of Americans don’t want to continue, it should not continue.”

Who doesn’t want what this continue, and where does this 90 percent come from? We think most American don’t want to see senseless shootings? We doubt there is even 10 percent that would say, “yeah, senseless shootings I’m all for that.” As for 90 percent wanting the gun show loophole closed, well, that’s just plain wrong.

The so-called loophole isn’t a loophole. And trying to say that 90 percent want it closed it just bad reporting.

Politico: Gun Control Needed – But Numbers Don’t Agree

The liberal blog Politico clearly doesn’t know how to read poll numbers. The site offered a story titled, “Poll: Gun control needed to stop shootings,” which ran via The Seattle Post-Intelligencer,  and the numbers don’t seem to add up:

“Americans are pointing to stricter gun control laws and a better mental health system as the best ways to guard against mass shootings, a new poll out Monday shows.

“Asked how to prevent mass shootings like the incident in Tucson, Ariz., 24 percent of those surveyed for a USA Today/Gallup Poll cited the need for stricter gun control laws.”

The intro says, “Americans are pointing to stricter gun control laws,” and then says “24 percent of those surveyed… cite the need for stricter gun control laws.” Does Politico realize that 24 percent is less than one quarter of the total people surveyed?

It gets more interesting:

“Nine percent of those surveyed said that more education about guns and violence would be the best way to prevent shootings, and 8 percent pointed to more rigorous background checks for people buying guns.”

Only later does the article add this:

“Fifty-five percent of those surveyed said the failure of the mental health system to identify dangerous people was a ‘great deal’ to blame for the Tucson shooting, while 48 percent said poor mental health care was to blame for other mass shootings.

So where does gun control come from in this? Less than a quarter of those surveyed want stricter gun control laws, and 55 percent of those surveyed believe the cause of the shooting was the mental health system. Talk about putting a spin on the story!

LA Times: Gun laws were tougher in old Tombstone

This past weekend The Los Angeles Times tried to present an image that gun laws were tougher in old Tombstone than it has today. Yes, it’s true that much of what you see about “the old west” is in fact myth. The story is right about that part.

Shootings didn’t happen at noon, there weren’t nearly as many colorful bank robberies as in the movies, and of course everyone didn’t wear a six shooter on their hips. But the article is trying to present Arizona as some sort of modern day “wild west” because of the gun laws in the state that the paper declares “are among the most lenient in the nation.”

Only buried in the copy however, is it made clear that Arizona is actually pretty safe. Yes, the Tucson shooting has put Arizona in the spotlight. But consider that every day people are shot in senseless acts of violence in Chicago and Washington, two cities that have among the strictest gun laws in the country. Those places might not be the wild west – they’re far worse in some neighborhoods.

John Lott Recalls Tragic Shooting to Set Record Straight

The American mainstream media likes to point out the waves of shootings that have occurred in the United States over recent decades, noting that most other countries don’t have this problem. But John Lott, writing for FoxNews, sets the record straight, writing that of the top five worst school shootings in the world, only one actually occurred in the United States:

“The very worst one occurred in a high school in Erfurt, Germany in 2002, where 18 were killed. The second worst took place in Dunblane, Scotland in 1996, where 16 kindergarteners and their teacher were shot. The third worst high school attack, with 15 murdered, happened in Winnenden, Germany. The fourth worst shooting was in the U.S. – Columbine High School in 1999, leaving 13 killed. The fifth worst school related murder spree, with 11 murdered, occurred in Emsdetten, Germany.”

Now any event of this type is a true tragedy, but Lott makes his point. Germany had three of the vive worst shootings – and yet has extremely strict gun laws compared to the United States. Thus tighter gun laws, which take away our Second Amendment rights, aren’t going to keep anyone safer.