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Over 90 Percent of Mexican Crime Guns Originate in U.S., New GAO Report Finds
That's the headline from the Violence Policy Center press release. It is a premeditated lie.
True, the qualifier "traced by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) over the last three years" is admitted in the body of the release, but even that doesn't tell a reader the number of guns withheld by Mexican authorities--or whether the ones submitted have been randomly selected or cherry-picked.
Headlines are important. Often times while scanning through news, that is all that will be noticed or retained. They are also crafted to facilitate SEO--search engine optimization--and thus the likelihood that a piece will feature prominently in searches to maximize traffic. Skilled press release writers know this, and VPC has been issuing press releases for a long time.
In other words, a media professional wrote a headline knowing it was false. The press release was authorized. The VPC legal director is quoted, so we also know it was vetted. The lie was not only calculated, it was sanctioned. And the perpetrators are counting on two things: media complicity and us not knowing any better.
It's not surprising to see VPC rely once more on deception. Their executive director and founder Josh Sugarmann admitted as much in a report crafted to gin up support for banning semi-automatic firearms:
The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons. In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these guns."
William R. Tonso of reasononline put it in perspective:
So back in 1988, one of the nation's leading gun prohibitionists was banking on public support for restrictions on "semi-automatic assault weapons," not because Americans were informed about the guns in question, but because they were uninformed and likely to remain so. Sugarmann, now executive director of the Violence Policy Center, could rely on the public's continuing confusion because he knew he would have the help of the nation's leading news organizations. During the next few years the major TV networks, newspapers, and magazines persistently misled the public about the capabilities of "assault weapons," falsely implied that the guns have no legitimate use, and ignored the Second Amendment issues at stake. Given the intensity of this misinformation, it is hardly surprising that polls find some 70 percent of Americans support the "assault weapon" ban approved by Congress last year.
And that, of course, is what they're still going after. Chillingly, VPC's conclusion in this latest PR, “With the stroke of a pen the Obama Administration could stop the import of a significant percentage of the guns being sought by Mexican gun traffickers," is reminiscent of a dictatorial executive branch lauded by former Clinton advisor Paul Begala:
''Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kind of cool.''
There is nothing "cool" about liars.
Check out other Gun Rights Examiners:
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- Boston: The Educated Patriot: The Courage To Be Free
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- Denver: United Kingdom solves problem of knife wielding thugs
- Los Angeles: Original Homeland Security Impeaches Pass ID, Part II.
- Minneapolis: Dirty Deeds in Virginia
- Seattle: Gun rights group’s lawsuit leads to regulations change in D.C.
- St. Louis: When gun bans are not enough--the war on . . . pocket knives?
- Wisconsin: Gun rights advocates make progress
Comments
Increasingly I am finding that sites that publish the most agregious of anti gun rants no longer allow open comment. The Brady Campaign itself does not allow comment of any kind. Others require lengthy registrations or hold comments and I suspect "lose" those that effectively counter the message they're trying to sell.
Will still do my best to get the truth out to those who would benefit, those with an open mind and willingness to listen to facts.
Find a coworker or neighbor who believes this crap, then take them to the range to shoot.
Those who will not even consider going are probably not worth even talking to. They've already made up their minds and have no use for the truth.
Locked and Loaded, Law of the Land, kind of cool. Sean, after brief thought.
The lies are the thing which have always bothered me the most. Well, that and the people they are killing with their lies, and the people whose lives are ruined by their persecutions.
The bigotry of the hoplophobes is simply intolerable in a free society. We have been WAY too nice to these jerks. What they are doing is not just lying, not just immoral - IT IS ILLEGAL. I've said this for years, and DC vs Heller only reinforces my opinion.
They are perfectly within their rights to disagree with the Second Amendment, and work to change it. They are NOT, however, within their rights to urge the passage of laws which deprive citizens of their rights in violation of the law. ESPECIALLY given the utilitarian arguments and supporting data showing that the "solution" they are pushing costs lives.
Don!t blame us for mexicos problems.where they get the guns, is of no consequence.why they use them, is mexicos problem to answer.don!t blame us for your crime infested country.......
You stopped before the most incisive portion of the Tonso quote:
"Having whipped up hysteria about 'assault weapons,' journalists now point to the results of their alarmist reporting as evidence that they were right all along."
Too long for a bumper sticker, but it ought to be one.
This is starting to make Iran look like summer school.
I've stopped beating around the bush and now give it to them straight:
The function of the 2nd amendment is to make possible the overthrow of government by force. Anyone who allows that government to decide which guns or which persons are appropriate to that end is NUTS.
I thought we had covered this issue once before.
Wasn’t the 90% figure actually 90% of 15% of the total number of guns recovered by the Mexican government?
Plus those guns appeared to be cherry picked, making the true figure even more erroneous.
I thought we also determined that the 90% figure included guns given to the Mexican government by the US government thus making the total number of guns coming from non-governmental sources such as gun shows very small.
Like Uncle Lar I find the policy change for posting comments by certain pro-gun groups a matter of contention.
KABA dot com was a place for gun owners to network and hash out ideas. It may not have been perfect but it worked.
I have sent my last check to the SAF until the policy is changed
To Uncle Lar:
I've noticed that too. I'll read an article, and as I'm reading I think to myself, "I can't wait to finish this article so I can post a comment that refutes the errors, and points out the inconsistencies. Then I get to the end, and there is no comment section.
Notice that the Brady website doesn't even have a "contact us" section for sending emails.
They probably got so many posts that they couldn't handle it. "The TRUTH? You can't handle the truth!"
I still comment on the pro gun articles, but I feel like I am preaching to the choir.
Off-topic comment deleted. I do not allow my threads to be hijacked.
If you want your topic covered, email me
dcodreaAThotmailDOTcom
and I will consider whether or not I want to write about it and offer it for discussion here.
The VIOLENCE POLICY CENTER a bunch of barefaced liars using every dirty trick in the book to repeal our 2nd amendment they should be fined 10:000 pasaquas
T-gun groups the mexican dictator and hillary clinton the ends justifi the means after all HITLER,STALIN,LENNIN,MAO,AMIN and CASTRO have one thing in common they all disarmed the populance
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