The headline is hysterical enough. From "reporter" Kim Vatis, NBC Chicago:
City Sees Assault Weapons Increase on Streets
ATF: Use of heavy caliber, military-style weapons up 17 percent this year
Note the question "Up over what?" is never raised, let alone answered. But to paraphrase the religious bumper sticker, ATF said it, I believe it, that settles it. And we all know how trustworthy they are. Just ask their whistle-blowers.
But say we can establish an objective truth to the claim. The question then becomes "So what?" This entire story revolves around the most prohibitive gun laws in the country being ignored.
Pointing out ignorance and manipulation in this story is easy--it's not a question of where to start--it's a question of when to stop.
The AK-47 can shoot "from nearly a block away"? A .22 LR can range well over a mile. Appleseed trains average people to shoot targets at 500 yards. 7.62 X 39 rounds are the benchmark for being powerful? That's the small one in the picture to the right, piggy-backed on a .30-06. And if you're going to ban guns firing rounds that can defeat police ballistic vests, there go centerfire rifles.
But even this isn't where the ultimate demonstration of either deliberate deception or ignorance-based negligence is foisted on the public in this shameful piece of propaganda masquerading as "straight news" journalism.
Take the accompanying video (please!), "Warzone Weapons Assault City Streets." First, semiautomatic (one shot per trigger squeeze) variants are not standard battlefield issue, and that's where an old lie is yet again being exploited.
They're shooting full auto:
"It'll empty this entire magazine in about three seconds."
And who thought it a good idea to hand such a firearm over to someone who demonstrably knows nothing about safe gun handling? They're not "almost impossible to control," Kim. Still, you do have to know what the hell you're doing, and that it's your responsibility to control it. Which you don't.
Let me get this straight: The person who knows least about a firearm is the one given a far-reaching forum to expound on it to others?
But the main point is, selective fire rifles are not the weapons affected by the federal ban you tell people "expired in 2004." Those were all semi-autos. And this is all part of a continuing deception some of us are not going to allow you to get away with.
Some of us have been exposing this ...uh... lie when perpetrated by other news organizations for years. And some have been reporting how little you "Authorized Journalists" are interested in learning the truth--or repeating it once you learn it. You're propagating a calculated strategy devised with the express purpose to demonize and ban guns:
In a September 1988 report on "assault weapons" that he prepared for the Education Fund to End Handgun Violence, gun control advocate Josh Sugarmann candidly observed: "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..."
So which is it, Kim? Deception or malpractice? Did you know all this, but went ahead and presented your report the way you did anyway? Or is this news to you, in which case you have no business presenting yourself as an authoritative voice molding public opinion, and, in fact are irresponsible to the point of being willfully negligent?
I mean, it's not like authoritative resources don't exist for an Emmy-nominated "Best Reporter" with access to, say, Google...
Or is this just a continuation of NBC's vaunted ethics when it comes to reporting just the facts without injecting reporter bias or engineered outcomes?
Don't you people have a GM truck to blow up or something?
[Thanks to HZ for the tip]
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Meet & greet
It's that time of year again. Ohioans for Concealed Carry has announced the dates for their annual holiday get-togethers.
Click here for details.
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Sense and sensibility
From Liberty Belles:
Chicago Mayor Daley has blamed the Ft. Hood massacre on America's love of guns.
Of course he has. But you'll notice he's not hating the ones his taxpayer-funded bodyguards are packing. That's what he means by "sensible gun laws."
Forget it Jake, it's Chi-Town.
Click here to read Jennifer Freeman's thoughts.
Comments
David, this stuck out at me:
"The AK-46 can shoot "from nearly a block away"?"
I presume that's a typo, since I know full well you do know what you're writing about. (It's AK-47 on the linked site, at least when I went there just now.) :-)
On a completely tangential note, it just warms my heart to see the guy in Oleg Volk's image is cradling a Steyr Scout--and one with the Jeff Cooper logo in the buttstock, no less.
To call the Steyr Scout a "deer rifle" is rather like calling Thomas Jefferson an inventor, or saying that Jim Thorpe was pretty good at baseball. Technically accurate...but shockingly incomplete.
Cooper used to say, "May your enemies always be on full auto." That probably goes for PSH, too.
Clumsy finger, Kevin. Clumsy fingers.
That and a certain amount of Karma.
NBC (subsidiary of GE) and Chicago. What a coincidence.
As you pointed out, David, we've been calling them out on these lies for years, and they still demonize guns and us. In fact, they seem to redouble their efforts whenever we counter them. This is incontrovertible proof that they aren't ignorant dupes, but accomplished liars.
Oh, and the reporterette who couldn't "aim" a full-auto was clearly mugging for the camera.
If nothing else, watching Under Siege with Steven Seagal taught me about semiautomatic rifles. He explains, quite clearly, setting the gun to semi auto, "When you pull the trigger you spend one round. That's what I want." And being on a US Navy battleship at see in the Pacific Ocean, allowing the weapon to be *military* and not civilian seems, well, reasonable.
As for the ATF - they don't get involved in illegal use of weapons, or crimes involving legal weapons, do they? Just what does "use is up" mean? The clear implication is that criminal use of assault rifles is up, but that could be another deliberate bit of misinformation. The ATF could just as well have reported that receipt of rifles through licensed gun dealers was up 17%. Which would be reasonable, considering the ongoing onslaught of the 2nd Amendment by the Obama administration.
If I recall, CNN got their hands slapped in court about a report supporting the then proposed 1994 AWB. Seems they used video of a Broward Sheriff Deputy firing a full-auto Colt 9mm carbine while the voice over discussed the proposed ban on "semi-automatic, military-style assault weapons". One has to wonder if these people are deliberately misinforming the public or just totally clueless on the topic they're trying to cover. One would chuckle about Rep. Carolyn McCarthy's description of a barrel shroud as "that shoulder thing that goes up" if these people didn't have the power to get laws passed. One has to wonder how the press would score on a firearms knowledge test.
Too bad you can't sue "authorized journalists" for malpractice. Libel and slander comes to mind, but in most states that is damn near impossible to establish. Ah well... not like a lot of people pay attention to these knuckleheads any more.
DDS--click the link under "for years".
Incidentally, anti-gun former sheriff Jenne is now a convicted felon for tax and mail fraud, and thus a "prohibited person."
David,
Thanks for pointing that link out, missed it on the first pass. Also, thanks for the cite on the Appleseed program. I've been twice. An excellent way to spend a weekend learning that you probably don't shoot nearly as well as you think you do. Shooters sometimes stretch the truth but their targets never do. Throw in the bonus of learning more about the sacrifices our ancestors made and two days of hearing the bark of multiple .30 caliber rifles and it's time well spent.
David,
I traded email with reporter Kim Vatis today. Some of what Kim shared showed both lack of knowledge of the subject and lack of understanding that the emotional fully auto video was only gun control in disguise. My edits from Kim's email here...
"I really tried to stay away from gun control.. The point was simple.. Thugs and gangs are getting a hold of higher caliber weapons legally and illegallypurchased.. for street credit and it shows in the statistics. And we are seing more incidents of that on the street in crime.. That simple..
Laws are broken all the time.. That gun was gold plated too..
This is not about law abiding gun owners.. It was about criminals and what they are doing with guns. "
"I am sorry you are dissapointed… but we have only so much time to tell a story.. There is no devil..
These statistics are straight from cpd. It was year to date which was stated in my report. I cannot sit and list every weapon type .. It was a summary."
Thanks for the follow-up and report, S.
So in other words, she's saying she didn't have time to learn her subject matter, fact-check, and find sources any that weren't in agreement.
Interesting and telling.
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