Media Propaganda  by Tom Reynolds

Last week, an article in the Wall Street Journal prompted SCOPE member Lee Edgcomb, of Victor, to respond.  His response is worth reading as it focuses on the media’s distorted prejudices when it comes to presenting anything about guns; they sneak in words that create an anti-gun picture in the minds of those reading the article.  Lee does a nice job of pointing these out.    

The article was titled: D.C. Shootings Highlight Rising Gun Violence

Dear Mr. Day, Ms Sarah Chaney-Cambon, Ms. Amara Omeokwe, and Mr. Aaron Zitner,

I understand you may not write the headlines, but please note that "gun violence “ is a very inaccurate and ungrammatical (but very effective) term created by the gun ban lobby that you are using.

Guns are inanimate objects and are not violent nor can they commit violence. Criminals commit violence. 

An accurate headline would be “D.C. Shootings Highlight Rising Criminal Violence”. “Shootings” already identifies the use of firearms.

Your article accurately identifies certain neighborhoods where the particular shootings occurred.  Wouldn’t "D.C. Shootings Highlight Rising Neighborhood Violence” be more accurate a headline? Or the word “Gang”?

I know it takes more words but, in your article, you say "a new wave of gun violence”. Wouldn’t it be much more accurate to say “new wave of gang shootings”?  Wouldn’t that provide the reader a more accurate mental picture of the problem.

Is the image sought “gun bad” or is the image sought “gang shootings bad”?

There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 450,000,000 firearms in the US.

60,000,000 households say they have firearms in the home.  Between 7,000,000,000 and 8,000,000,000 rounds of ammunition are fired each year by millions of people.

Truly, the rising violence you refer to is a criminal/gang activity called shootings, murders, hits, or whatever. But the firearm is not “violent”. It is the person behind it.

Thanks to Lee for taking the time to let the media know that we are watching and for fighting back against the left’s radical gun control agenda.

Another SCOPE member sent me an article in Bearing Arms, by Cam Edwards, on another media anti-gun blitz.  Some excerpts from what Edwards writes:

ABC News says its week-long special coverage called “One Nation Under Fire” will “explore the root causes of gun violence” through both national and local reporting. I have a feeling that “One Nation Under Fire” is going to end up being one network’s love letter to the gun control lobby.

Will ABC News mention the failures of gun control in places like New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle in any of their coverage? I doubt it, unless it’s to argue that more federal gun laws are needed since the state-level gun control laws clearly aren’t doing enough to stop the violence.

I wouldn’t be surprised if at least a few talking heads bring up the nomination of David Chipman as permanent director of ATF at some point. With Chipman’s confirmation in doubt, Democrats are clearly trying to rally senators like Joe Manchin and Jon Tester to sign off on installing a gun control activist in the top spot at ATF, and the ABC News special seems like an ideal vehicle for them to make their case.

Will their “root causes” of crime focus on high unemployment rates, poverty levels, dysfunctional families, and crumbling institutions like the public school and criminal justice systems? Or will they decide that the primary root causes of gun violence are guns themselves and our Second Amendment rights?

I suppose that I should watch it to see what the enemy is saying.  Nah…life is too short.  I haven’t watched ABC news in years (perhaps decades).  I’ll let someone else suffer through it and read their response.