Summer Recap: Top Gun Stories
So much has happened over the past couple of months that we felt it was time to do a quick recap. Here are some topics that we’d like to close the book on for good.
Gun and Ammo Sales Have Increased – OLD NEWS. This story started in the dead of winter in January as President Obama took office, picked up steam in the spring thaw and simmered all summer. Enough already.
Gun Buybacks Take Guns Off the Street – TOTAL SPIN. Have any criminals actually handed in their guns? No, more likely widows sold off extremely valuable firearms for a gift card at Costco. Gun buybacks didn’t take guns off the street, but it made for a nice photo opportunity.
Guns at Town Hall Meetings – TOTAL SPIN. No one brought a gun into a hall where the president was speaking (unless you count the Secret Service agents). Worse, the mainstream media has repeatedly claimed that people showed up with “loaded guns.” Did any reporter check the magazines to confirm?
U.S. Guns Fuel Mexican Drug War – OLD NEWS/TOTAL SPIN. Every day hundreds of illegal immigrants cross the border. Every day hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal drugs cross the border. Is this reported? No, because it is considered old news. So why does the mainstream media continue to report on the U.S. guns used in Mexico’s drug wars? And when will the media report that the numbers and statistics are totally wrong and off base? Probably not soon enough.
USA Today Editorial Misses Some Facts
While we agree with the argument of a recent USA Today argument that no one should bring guns to a town hall meeting or other political event, we find it disturbing that America’s paper failed to point out that the gun protester in Arizona was actually put up to the stunt by a local shock jock. In fairness, this point has been ignored by most of the mainstream media, and only The Washington Times bothered to address this. The irony is that MSNBC made a big deal out of the AR-15 carrying man – and labeled those who carried guns as racists (despite the fact that the man in question was black) – and now USA Today references the incident without mentioning that it has come out that it was a purposely staged event.
Is it a Fair News Story if Only One Source is Cited?
Is it an editorial or a news piece that ran this weekend in The Tennessean? The paper ran in its “Our View” section (which implies it is an editorial) a story that included a quote from a source (implying it is a news piece). The copy has the feeling of a news story, but the angle of an editorial. The problem with this type of reporting is that it confuses the reader.
Everything on Firearmstruth.com for example is highly editorialized, and we don’t try to pass our postings off as “news.” But pieces that hide this fact are extremely dangerous, because these have an agenda. This particular piece, titled “Public safety demands state fix gun law’s loopholes,” includes a quote from Doug Pennington, assistant communications director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
The problem we have with this type of reporting is that it is in the “Our View” section, but includes outside opinion. There isn’t a problem to use a source to prove facts, or make a point. But this particular editorial goes way beyond that. And what isn’t fair is that no other source was called to counter the argument. Nice way to stack the deck. So to The Tennessean I say you have a narrow world view, and worse someone told you where to look.
The Washington Times Sets Record Straight
While we at Firearmstruth.com continue to act as a watchdog to report on mistakes, misinformation and other flat out lies by the mainstream media, we like to report when the media gets it right. This week The Washington Times set the record straight and called out the erroneous reporting being done by MSNBC and CBS News in recent weeks. Thank you to The Washington Times.
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.
Not the First Time Guns Were at Rallies
The Chicago Tribune reminded readers that the recent wave of gun-toting citizens at various political rallies isn’t new. The paper explains in this passage:
“In 1967, for example, about 30 members of a new organization called the Black Panther Party marched with rifles and shotguns into the California State Assembly in Sacramento to protest a proposed ban on carrying weapons in public. Yes, children, the ’60s were not only about Woodstock.” 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.
What if 1,000 People Brought Guns to Obama Rally?
Judge H. Lee Sarokin asked that question in a Huffington Post article. I guess the question is why is this problem, IF (and I do stress IF) these people are legally carrying the guns? In any given year thousands of men and women head to the woods to hunt at the same time, and every weekend there are thousands of guns at guns shows, and thousands of guns at shooting events and competitions. Read more
Christian Science Monitor Looks to Extremes
Better late than never, but this week the Christian Science Monitor - a paper that has not shied away from its biased anti-gun stance – posted an editorial with the ominous title “Guns at presidential events: encouraging extremists?” This is fear mongering plain and simple. Not once has the mainstream media taken the approach, “see guns can be out in public and no one was hurt.”
Instead the CSM, as well as the rest of the mainstream media, offer this opinion:
“So far, the gun-wielding protesters have been too far removed from the president to pose any threat. But experts say this new phenomenon of guns at public events may require adjustments in how the president operates.
“The threat, they say, is not necessarily the gun-carrying protesters themselves. Rather, their actions could embolden the nation’s angriest fringe. The specter of so-called ‘lone wolf” acts of violence is already high on the nation’s law enforcement agenda.”
MSNBC Labels Those Carrying Guns to Town Hall Meetings Racists
MSNBC is one of the worst offenders when it comes to targeting the issue of gun control, but it went so far as to label those carrying guns to the town hall meetings and other events where President Obama is speaking as racists.
Of course NewsBusters.org is one of just a few watchdog groups that noted that while MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer noted that it was “white people with guns,” the person in the video is… black.
