One Day’s Newspaper  by Tom Reynolds

On Wednesday, the news was full of so much…misinformation…that it begs some clarification.

One story was about the families of victims in the Sandy Hook shootings settling a lawsuit against Remington for $73 million.  Misinformation, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), which represents gun manufacturers, so it should know.

The Remington brand was previously used by several separate corporations.  Remington Outdoor Company (ROC) was the corporation that produced the rifle in question.  The decision to settle was not made by ROC.  The settlement was reached with the insurance carriers that held policies with ROC.  The insurance companies make their decisions on a financial basis and not in the best interests of a former client or, in this case, not on a principle that needed defending.

I say “former client” because ROC no longer exists. It effectively ceased to exist as a going concern in 2020 when its assets were sold.  The lawsuit, however, continued against the estate of ROC.  The estate consisted of ROC’s insurers and their insurance policies in effect at the time. Vista Outdoors, which is the current owner of the Remington brand, wasn’t a party to the lawsuit or involved in the decision to settle.   

This settlement by insurance companies has no impact on the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), which remains the law of the land. PLCAA will continue to block baseless lawsuits that attempt to blame lawful industry companies for the criminal acts of third parties.  But this settlement will encourage misleading newspaper articles as well as anti-2A radicals who see a new pot-of-gold at the end of their rainbow.

Another story was about a Missouri bill (that failed to be passed) that, according to the headline, would “make murder legal”. 

The proposed law would have changed Missouri’s stand-your-ground laws for using deadly force and write “innocent until proven guilty” protections into such cases.  It would also have offered some civil immunity for someone who uses deadly force in self-defense. 

Defending oneself is not murder.  Unfortunately, Soros’ funded prosecutors like St. Louis’ Kim Gardener have been prosecuting people like the McCloskeys for political purposes.  Our justice system must be independent of political factors.

One Missouri Democrat Senator said the proposed law would let people like those who killed Ahmaud Arbery go free.  Not so, by a long shot.  But the truth and a deceptive headline never stopped the anti-2A fanatics.

An Associated Press story was headlined: “Conspiracies fuel recent extremist killings”.  The entire report was about right wing extremists being responsible for domestic terrorism.  Are there no left wing violent extremists like…say…Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA?

“Legal Insurrection”, a very reliable internet source, reported in September 2021 that in 2020 Antifa/BLM-Led Riots “…resulted in some 15 times more injured police officers, 30 times as many arrests, and estimated damages in dollar terms up to 1,300 times more costly than those of the Capitol riot.”

How could the Associated Press have completely missed the information about left wing extremists on Legal Insurrection and also on multiple other sources?  Perhaps the authors only read information that agrees with their foregone conclusion that domestic terrorists are limited to the right wing?

Another story covered taxpayer’s woes when dealing with an unresponsive I R S.  The article covered the many cases of an unresponsive I R S dealing with telephone inquiries and processing tax returns. 

If a private business does not respond to its customers, that business usually goes out-of-business.  If a government agency (think about the term “Public Service”) doesn’t respond to its customers, that agency goes to Congress and is rewarded with a budget increase.  Of course, it’s a conspiracy theory to think that the IRS would intentionally slow down service to get a budget increase as a response to Joe Biden’s failed attempt to get them a massive budget increase.  And the Associated Press would never stoop to mentioning the possibility of a conspiracy theory, unless it accused right wingers of something.  Thank goodness Lois Lerner is gone and only upstanding public servants are left in the IRS.

And last but not least, the Associated Press also covered the Ukraine Crisis.  It reported on Joe Biden’s statement that, “…defending democracy and liberty is never without cost…I will not pretend this is painless.”   The article went on to briefly single out energy as a specific cause of that pain.  The exact nature of the pain was left undefined but inflationary costs of energy and possible shortages of energy are the obvious conclusions. 

How can we have energy shortages when we’re energy independent?  Oh wait, that was under President Trump.  Not mentioned was President Biden’s foreign policy strategy of again making America dependent upon foreign sources.  Even before the Ukraine Crisis, the US Energy Information Administration estimated that, under Biden, we would increase oil product imports by 1 million barrels per day.  After Canada, our top importers are such stable, pro-American companies as: Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Colombia.  Way to go, Joe!