When is an assault weapon not an assault weapon?

March 22, 12:30 PMDallas Libertarian ExaminerGarry Reed

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Viktor Kalashnikov’s pride and
joy: assault rifle or self-defense
weapon? (from AP photo/Paul
Wong)

Sometimes perceptive insight pokes its ugly snout where none was intended, nor wanted. Perceptive insight, while presumptuously attempted, seldom appears in the MSM (which by now almost everyone knows is the trendy abbreviated way of saying “mainstream media.”)

Ever elusive, as opposed to illusive, insight happens in the MSM most frequently when a news source presents what it thinks are two completely dissimilar stories on the same front page or homepage or newscast but are actually, unknowingly to them, the same story.

This happened recently when Freedom News Daily, a permanent feature on the libertarian International Society for Individual Liberty website (in this case neither an MSM nor an “unknowingly” news source) offered a pair of apparently unrelated articles.

Under the OPINION heading was a link to a bit of biting satire bitten off by soft-bitten columnist Scott Ott of the DC Examiner. As any good satirist does, Ott opened with a paragraph of straightforward-sounding news reporting. This sensible seeming sentence of seriousness serves as the springboard into the entertaining sinkhole of sarcasm.

But we’re only concerned here with Ott’s article opener:

“In an effort to reduce gun violence nationwide, Attorney General Eric Holder said today that the Obama administration will reinstate the Clinton-era assault weapons ban that expired in 2004, adding new provisions to make it even more effective at saving lives.”

Fair enough. Now to the NEWS section on the same monitor screen on the same day. Here, a blurb and a link lead us to the WSBTV.com website where the Atlanta GA Channel 2 folks deposit their news scripts from their on-air broadcasts.

Here's the lead to the story:

“A well-armed couple opened fire with an assault rifle and pistol early Friday morning on some car thieves in southwest Atlanta.”

The story, in short: A husband and wife in their home heard car thieves in their carport. He grabbed the handgun while she opted for the AK-47. They opened fire. The thieves beat feet. The couple saved their now well-ventilated vehicle.

The insight, should you chose to see it, is this: Viktor Timofeevich Kalashnikov’s clip-fed gas-operated 7.62 mm caliber model 1947 rifle is not an assault weapon when it is used for defense. Then it’s a self-defense weapon.

So why don’t we ever see articles that make this simple distinction? When are we going to read or hear stories like this:

“A couple fired a self-defense rifle and a personal-protection handgun at thugs, preventing them from stealing their car.”

The answer to the question, “When is an assault weapon not an assault weapon?” seems to be this: “when it’s being talked about by normal, honest people rather than the news media.”