Another rather poorly worded article that’s sure to get your blood pressure on the rise. The first thing that jumps out is the commonplace conflation of “semi automatic” and “assault weapon”.
In Miami, while overall crime is down, the use of semi-automatic weapons is growing.
“These things are dirt cheap,” Police Chief John Timoney told Reuters, estimating the street price at $250 each. “We have seen these assault weapons being used time and time again by drug gangs.”
I think that pretty much speaks for itself (for Gun Guy Mike and the other braindeads out there, a semi auto weapon is merely a firearm that chambers the next round for you using recoil, and shoots one round per trigger pull; semi auto and assault weapon are two entirely different things).
The article also presents the other staple of the media anti-gun bias playbook: the unrebutted quote from a Bradyite mouthpiece which distorts a key fact:
From the expiration of a federal ban on assault rifles to tougher restrictions on databases that identify gun owners, gun laws have weakened in the past five years, said Daniel Vice, an attorney with the Brady Center to Prevent Handgun Violence.
“The top five states with the highest gun death rates are five states with incredibly weak gun laws,” he said, listing Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, New Mexico and Wyoming.
What Mr. Vice (an appropriately named person if I ever saw one) is missing is that gun death rates include perps shot by cops, accidents, suicides, and justifiable homicides as well as murders. He’s hoping you won’t catch that so you’ll be fooled into thinking permissive gun laws equate to everyone killing each other. You should write him to let him you’re not as dumb as he takes you for.
In case you’re curious to see which states have the highest MURDER rates, you can consider this link. You’ll notice that Maryland, which gets an “A” rating for its draconian gun control laws from the Brady lobby, is ranked number two! Sure, the top ten is also filled out with plenty of permissive gun law states, but includes the anti-gun California as well. Go figure–could it be that socioeconomic factors are what create criminality and violence, and not weak or strong gun control laws? Hmmmm? What’s also telling is the bottom of the list is populated by mostly gun-friendly states like Vermont, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Maine, Utah, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, etc. The Brady’s apparently don’t think you’re smart enough to notice that either.
[…] Update: regarding the assault weapons canard, pro-gun progressive says: The article also presents the other staple of the media anti-gun bias playbook: the unrebutted quote from a Bradyite mouthpiece which distorts a key fact […]
Pingback by SayUncle » What media bias against guns? — August 21, 2006 @ 8:30 am
Their at it again! These Brady people and the anti gun liberals are never going to give up. This is the bullsh*t that we will have to keep on fighting. You know the old saying “Freedom is never free”
Comment by Rich — August 21, 2006 @ 1:40 pm
A quick check through Yahoo!s search engine shows that the “journalist” who wrote this “news” article is:
http://www.expertclick.com/expertClick/default.cfm?Action=JournalistProfile&JournalistID=4180&OrderBy=DTS&Dir=DESC&Keyword=
Jason Szep
Bureau Chief, Boston
Reuters
53 State Street, 14 Floor
Boston, MA 02109
USA
Phone: 617-367-4106
Gee, and you wonder why the article is biased…
Comment by Nimrod45 — August 21, 2006 @ 3:40 pm
Ha! Nice find. Everyone feel free to email him my article on his “work” so we can remind him what a turd it was.
Comment by Administrator — August 21, 2006 @ 7:47 pm
Hey, you never know what you’re going to find until you look. More people looking = more info at our disposal…
Comment by Nimrod45 — August 23, 2006 @ 11:10 am
Just wanted to make the point that Yahoo is just carrying a story from Reuters. It’s probably an automated process, as a portal they reproduce news articles from a number of sources. It wouldn’t surprise me if Reuters was anti-gun, they won’t even call terrorists what they are. Hmmm, I bet Bloomberg news is required to be anti-gun.
Comment by SteVe — August 24, 2006 @ 2:17 am
I was going to say what SteVe said above, that Yahoo News
is just syndicating what comes off the affiliated news wires.
That said, Yahoo’s lawyers had a prohibition against guns written into their ad network terms of service.
Comment by Typewriterking — August 29, 2006 @ 3:22 pm
[…] Pro-Gun Progressive says “Yahoo Joins the Anti-Gun Media Blitz“. No surprise here. […]
Pingback by lickx@digitalvisuals.comsurefire flashlights and glowsticks » Blog Archive » Red dot scopes - NRA-ILA Grassroots Alert Vol. 13, No. 17 04/28/06 — November 19, 2006 @ 6:36 pm