As the establishment media has delighted in reporting the ongoing civil litigation against the National Rifle Association and its now-former executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, there has been no slowing down of efforts to portray gun control groups and efforts as “gun safety” organizations and advocacy.
While one can read in the Courthouse News about how Virginia Democrats are pushing “gun safety measures” with assistance from March For Our Lives co-founder David Hogg, it is also possible to see LaPierre attacked at the Daily Kos, by a writer observing, “You’d think a guy who’s dedicated his whole being to making random public shootings far more frequent, deadly, and traumatizing would be completely beyond reproach. Or at least be satisfied with L.L. Bean. But no.”
Check the Everytown for Gun Safety website, where this myth is perpetuated: “In recent years, the gun lobby has worked to allow anyone to carry guns anywhere in public, anytime, with no questions asked.”
This is how so-called “constitutional carry” efforts are described, essentially to portray gun rights activists as being in favor of arming criminals. It’s a lie, and they know it.
The mudslinging gets even better at Business Insider, where coverage of the NRA trial and LaPierre’s own testimony about alleged lavish spending includes this paragraph: “Gun control and gun safety advocates say they’re not sorry to see LaPierre go. A few took the opportunity to unload, so to speak, to Business Insider on what they described as LaPierre’s bullet-riddled legacy.”
But, say many in the firearms community, when will the establishment media start challenging these so-called “gun safety” organizations to, at the very least, provide a schedule of where they teach firearms safety? Who in the so-called “mainstream press” has ever inquired of outfits including Everytown, or its subsidiary Moms Demand Action, or the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, about how many certified instructors they have around the country?
And when will anyone in any newsroom in the U.S. explain what “gun reform” is? What does it mean, actually, other than more restrictions on the constitutionally-enumerated rights of honest citizens to keep and bear arms?
For genuine firearms safety advice, perhaps one might direct the newsroom gun reporters to consult the NRA Gun Safety Rules.
Maybe those whose tender sensibilities do not allow them to even remotely associate with anything bearing the NRA logo might opt for a visit to the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Firearm Safety – 10 Rules of Safe Gun Handling.
It was rather grimly amusing to read in the Courthouse News report that Virginia “Democrats also seek to ban firearms on public college campuses. In 2007, 23-year-old student Seung-Hui Cho committed one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history, killing 32 people and wounding 17 others at Virginia Tech.”
If anyone on the Courthouse News staff—or any other general circulation publication—honestly believes that a campus gun ban would have prevented Virginia Tech, it suggests a naivete so profound as to require at least remedial counseling on the subject of “Thinking Like an Adult.”
The prohibition on guns at Hogg’s Parkland, Fla., high school didn’t prevent killer Nikolas Cruz from murdering 17 people and wounding as many others.
Across the landscape, groups and individuals clamoring for “safe storage” requirements that all guns be locked up all the time apparently failed to read, or didn’t understand when they read the passage on Page 58 of the Supreme Court’s ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, which can be interpreted to make such mandatory lock-and-key storage unconstitutional.
Writing for the majority, the late Justice Antonin Scalia observed, “We must also address the District’s requirement (as applied to respondent’s handgun) that firearms in the home be rendered and kept inoperable at all times. This makes it impossible for citizens to use them for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and is hence unconstitutional.”
While CNN and other news outlets can enjoy LaPierre’s courtroom testimony in which he reportedly acknowledged trying to appear to be a hunter when meeting with sportsmen’s groups, but that network, nor any other major media outlet ever calls out any gun prohibition lobbying organization for their self-proclaimed “gun safety” group label.
It is a classic example of the double standard, which begets often justifiable complaints about “fake news” from gun owners, conservative politicians and even former President Donald Trump.
The establishment media may not like it, but so long as editors and reporters allow anti-gunners to get away with it, and even support their gun prohibition efforts in logically-challenged editorials, the firearms community—made up of real hunters, genuine firearms safety instructors, handloaders, home gunsmiths and honest-to-goodness firearms experts—will always have the high ground in the gun rights debate, especially as they approach the media with well-deserved skepticism.
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
Alec Baldwin is the Left’s poster child on the subject of “gun safety.” He didn’t bother to learn anything about the gun he was handling. As a result, he didn’t know that he could have checked to see if it was loaded and if so with what, much less know the importance of that critical step. He didn’t know that as the person handling a potentially loaded firearm, he and he alone was responsible for any resulting negligent discharge, and he has spent the time since the incident trying to deflect blame on others. As a result, one person died,… Read more »
And Alex is way to the left when it comes to his political leanings. I suspect he felt that the gun was safe because he had petted it to sleep and figured it would be a good gun as long as he treated it nice.
The average listener on MSDNC or CNN or NYT reader will never get the facts of the case because for the New Left facts simply do not matter. These folks have been conditioned to shut down all sensory input when that input runs counter to their ideology.
If I remember correctly, his father was a gun safety instructor, or something like that.
og – that makes an ‘assumption’ that such knowledge soaks in to the next generation. IOW that is what passes for safety training among the hoplophobes.
I think he slept at a Holiday Inn too!!!!!
Not sure if ‘hogg’s’ retired fbi daddy was an instructor or not. He sure did not teach this “son” COMMON SENSE! OH! I forgot, many institutions do not teach newbies HOW TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES, but WHAT TO THINK AND OBEY OBEDEANTLY the DIRECTIVES from their MASTERS!!!
Darn it! Don’t waste time arguing the details of the movie set tragedy. Baldwin violated every rule of gun safety when he killed that unfortunate woman. Any attempt to rationalize it, exposes the bias and ignorance of the anti-2A crowd.
gun control is nothing more than people control by a name/title the ignorant think is safe(ty) and cool. slavery is never safe or cool.
haa – slavery in any form ‘might’ be okay IF one is the slave owner.
Exactly. Slaves don’t own weapons and armed people are hard to enslave.
“And when will anyone in any newsroom in the U.S. explain what “gun reform” is?”
Never. Current “newsroom” is THE propaganda arm of a specific party and they are all in for perpetuating the lies that the average people believe with all their heart and voting power. People don’t want to be informed, they want to be told how to think and what to do. Critical thinking has taken a backseat to the 5 second headline consumer.
It’s is far less about “when will” and more about “how to make people care” enough to take notice, let alone to act.
This very site is the ‘free press’ envisioned by our founders. Electronic pamphleteering is what they would be doing today if they were publishing the Federalist in our world. And they would not require incorporation nor would they require a license or union card to publish.
Progressive New Left ideology is based on a foundation of mythology. The magical thinking coming from university campuses for the past 70 years is finally collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions. That being said one cannot assume that a corporate media industrial complex dependent on perpetuating that mythology is going to fold up and go away. No, money talks and cow effluent walks. It is just that simple. The DNC,MSDNC,CNN,NYT, WaPo cabal of corporate media must maintain the mythology to maintain their readership/listenership bases and can only do so by preventing the pin prick of critical thinking and… Read more »
The biggest problem that I see is that there is virtually no response to the anti gun propaganda outside of the gun media. We rarely see any reporting of pro gun anything in the msm. As a result, the politicians mainly listen to the yammerings of Hogg boy and his ilk and continue to introduce legislation that is unconstitutional and will do so until they are successful. We need to win the hearts of the general public. Yes, there are similar publications like this that do publish our side but really it’s an echo chamber.
Interesting observation. One good reason for this is the establishment media’s reluctance to publish such counter reports or Op-Eds because they challenge the prevailing anti-gun narrative. I know because I’ve done a couple which received very little media play, and one got absolutely no use by newspapers.
Thanks for reading and sharing this AMMOLAND report.
Opps wrong spot. My apologies.
It’s not a “reluctance to publish such counter reports or Op-Eds”. It’s their statist agenda that they actively pursue, at any cost.
As one who had crepitus of the knees in my thirties, I love the name…
As a student of ancient history, I love the lore of the times and the name is a reflection of that love and my reaction to most of today’s news.
When someone’s intelligence is so limited that they think a deranged person intent on shooting up a place is going to think, “oh, this is a no gun zone; I guess I can’t do this as I’m not allowed to have a gun here”, there’s no hope for him/her.
” Gun safety” is a little button or lever that when clicked to the fire position allows the gub to fire when the trigger is pulled. Fixed that for ya all .
Regarding the question of is the debt no longer valid, if the rest of the world finds out that Americans, in their own country, will not accept American dollars as payment, what does one think will happen to the value of the American dollar world wide?
“It was rather grimly amusing to read in the Courthouse News report that Virginia “Democrats also seek to ban firearms on public college campuses. In 2007, 23-year-old student Seung-Hui Cho committed one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history, killing 32 people and wounding 17 others at Virginia Tech.”” You did not mention that Students who had their guns ON CAMPUS were INSTRUMENTAL in STOPPING the SLAYINGS of the WANTON KILLER!
Also in Valdes shooting, it occurred in a “NO GUN ZONE” because the cowardly police refused to aggressively go after the WANTON KILLER. Which gave IT time to commit numerous slayings!!
Seems a bit odd doesn’t it? And to think that you earned any downvotes for posting a link to the truth. What the fk is it with people on here?
Based solely on his frequent antisemitic comments, I would down vote him if he said water was wet.
LOL! The media lost it’s credibility a LONG time ago. And keeps loosing it. Pretty soon we will consider the media to be the modern equivalent of “The Enquirer” . It’s become a total laughing stock. And I’m glad I was able to help. Check me out at http://courageouslion.us for LOTS of red pills.
I wish I could agree with you but the painful truth of the matter is this: a large swath of our population is conditioned to seek information input that serves not to inform but serves to reinforce their confirmation bias. They cling to ‘their truth’ while the world around them is on fire. Rather than blame the magical thinking of their thought leaders they find straw men to blame. Case in point, look at the reaction of Blue Utopia mayors who are now flooded with illegal immigrants. They whine when they have to pay the costs of this intentional flooding… Read more »