The New Mexico Independent Debates Issue of Guns at Town Hall Rallies
V.B. Price is just the latest of authors of editorials to jump to conclusions. Writing for The New Mexico Independent, he says:
“If loyal members of the NRA carry loaded guns into public political meetings and town halls, should loyal members of the ACLU carry loaded guns to the same gatherings?”
First, he immediately implies that those bringing firearms are members of the NRA, but this has never been proven. Second, he claims these are “loaded guns,” a claim made by many in the mainstream media. Maybe someone should ask if these guns are in fact “loaded.” Next he makes this claim:
“Gun carrying in any public setting is a provocation.”
Is that true? As we’ve pointed out previously, no one has actually opened fire. And while we are Firearmsturth.com don’t think people should bring firearms to town hall meetings, clearly the fact is there that responsible people can carry guns and no one gets shot.
Guns Seized Down Under
Australia is another country that has extremely strict gun laws. According to an August 2007 report, only about 5.2 percent of Australian adults own a firearm. Buying a gun requires a Permit to Obtain. In other words firearms are hard to get, and this should make the land down under safer, at least that is the anti-firearm rhetoric. Obviously if guns are hard to obtain, criminals can’t possibly get guns is the claim. But ABC News (as in the Australian Broadcast Company) is reporting that there has been a large seizure of illegal firearms.
“Police say they were staggered to find more than 60 illegal guns in a storage container in Sydney’s south-west overnight.”
Among the guns found in this raid were several weapons that can’t be legally owned by anyone in the country including a sub-machinegun. The New South Wales police issued a full press release that included this passage:
“A Heckler & Koch MP5 9mm submachine gun, currently used by armed forces and law enforcement units in more than 40 countries, was among the weapons found.”
So how did Australia’s strict laws exactly keep these illegal guns from coming into that country?
Firing Back: U.K. Proof of How Gun Control Doesn’t Stop Crime
Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s I was told how in the United Kingdom the police (The Bobbies) didn’t carry guns, and how crime wasn’t a problem. Over the years the U.K. has served as an example from the anti-firearms crowd on how crime was low, and gun violence was something that never happened. First things first. This was a misconception. The U.K. always had violence. Read more
TPM Writer Misses Mark on Gun Owners
In an editorial for TPM Café writer Leonard Zeskind suggests that gun shows have transformed from a regular event that was about hunting and collectibles, into something aimed (no pun intended) at recruiting a white nationalist movement. He states this by noting:
“A few collectors remain, who display antique weapons in the same way as their cousins might collect stamps, particularly at the smaller weekend events. Nevertheless, as anyone who has been around these shows long enough to remember the time when mahogany exhibits of Civil War muskets were the rule and not the exception.” Read more
New York Times Editorial Calls Protester “A Nut”
In another example of it is being patriotic to protest the war in Iraq, and to protest every and anything about President Bush, yet you’re a “nut” or worse if you speak out against President Obama, The New York Times recent editorial by Frank Rich went so far as to remind readers of the actions of Timothy McVeigh. What Mr. Rich and so many others are not realizing is that most law abiding gun-owning citizens aren’t plotting in basements, and those that are expressing their rights – such as the man who showed up at the Town Hall Meeting in Arizona with the AR-15 – are doing so legally.
No one was hurt, no one was shot, no buildings have blown up. But instead of having a dialog with gun owners, too many in the mainstream media are trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy by creating an environment that drives these individuals to feel that they need to be plotting in basements. Let’s just hope the dialog continues, so it never comes to that.
Gun Ownership on the Rise – Is this News?
According to a recent gun sales are increasing and it is because of concerns over possible future legislation. At this point we wouldn’t be surprised if Seattle Times and Seattlepi.com reports that oil prices have eased and home sales were sluggish in the first quarter of this year. Talk about being late on a story, but that didn’t stop this Seattle-based Web site from doing a bit of fear mongering:
“Gun owners worried that a bad economy could lead to increased violence and suspicious that new stricter gun laws are on the horizon are rushing in record numbers to get concealed weapons permits.”
However, what is worrisome is that this is a wire story that is in fact from The Associated Press. So the question is did the Seattle Times run a very old and dated piece, or does the AP hate guns so much that it will rehash a story while the news is slow? You be the judge.
Chinese Police Seize 50,000 Guns!
We’ve reported on this before, but it is in the mainstream media again – unfortunately ONLY in the mainstream media in China as the Western media seems not to notice. Police in China have seized more than 50,000 guns in a crackdown that began in March and will continue to China’s October 1 National Day celebration. But it isn’t just guns either reports the Window of China news organization:
“Chinese police have confiscated more than 50,000 guns and nearly 900 tonnes of explosives in a crackdown during the past five months, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said Thursday. Nearly 10,000 suspects have been arrested.”
This is again notable because in China possession of any firearm is illegal. If it is possible for so many guns to be in private hands in a Communist state that controls the media, and has limited infrastructure with roads and rails, how can anyone in the United States believe that criminals here wouldn’t also manage to find guns?
My Goodness, MyCentralNewJersey.com Really Should Get the Facts Straight
Editorials are fine when the writer argues with points. But when the writer of an editorial just spouts off nonsense it should fall into something that isn’t even defended by the First Amendment of our constitution, namely “DANGEROUS SPEECH.” Case in point, this argument of the “facts” of gun laws on the MyCentralNewJersey.com Web site:
“The Second Amendment was written as follows: ‘A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.’
“I cannot see how these words mean that there should be ‘gun shows’ where anyone can buy an Uzi, a missile launcher or any other weapon that our military uses. Why has our government allowed so many guns to be in our country? There were over 9,000 murders by shootings in our country last year. In England and other countries in Europe the number of murders by shooting in all these countries totaled less than 50.”
Gun Crime Up in Canada – Does That Mean Michael Moore Was Wrong?
What is this in the National Post from Canada? It claims that gun crime is up in the big city to our north, and that many of the guns are coming from the United States. Of course the mainstream media has jumped on the latter fact, while essentially ignoring the former fact. Slice it how you want, but gun crime is up and that is a fact. Criminals will get their hands on guns. And for the record, just 70 percent of the guns are even reportedly coming from America – and we have a feeling that number is as reliable as the now debunked 90 percent of guns used south of our border (in fact the final number is close to 17 percent in Mexico). So what’s the story? Deputy Chief Tony Warr had this to say in the article in the National Post?
“Ten or 15 years ago, a shooting was quite an event. Catching someone with a gun was quite an event. It’s not everyday but it’s a common event now. There seems to be more of a proliferation of guns.”
Darkside of “Cash for Guns” Programs
At a recent so-called “cash for guns” buyback event in California a man approached people and bought guns before they had a chance to turn them in. How often does this happen? Probably more often than police, or the mainstream media like to report. The Fresno Bee reported this interesting bit:
“(Fresno Police Chief Jerry) Dyer said some people who dropped off guns during Saturday’s event declined to accept the gift cards. But one enterprising person was reported running his own ‘cash for guns’ effort, approaching people waiting in line. He got away before police could catch him.”
