Democratic Underground - Why honesty in the media is so important ...

Reply #46: Why honesty in the media is so important ... [View All]

spin

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Mon May-09-11 10:37 PM
Response to Original message

46. Why honesty in the media is so important ...

First I wish to rant on the main stream media and their constant exaggeration of the facts on firearms and gun control. Then I will address the video clip by Rachel.

There are at least 40 million gun owners in our nation and most are fairly knowledgeable about the subject of firearms. It's not rocket science.

Many of those gun owners follow news closely. They often listen to commentators on TV and while they are not familiar with macroeconomics, corporate law or the political realities of the Middle East they are familiar with firearms.

When a talking head makes a foolish and blatantly false statement about firearms, gun owners immediately notice this and any comment about other subjects is viewed with a great deal of suspicion and distrust. If a media person with all the resources that the main stream media has available can't understand a simple topic like firearms, why should he/she be trusted to have any understanding of other far more complicated issues?

Perhaps that is why the main stream media has such a low rating. People are not as stupid as the well educated intellectual elite believes. Perhaps because the media operates out of areas that are basically gun unfriendly and unfamiliar with firearms such as New York City or Washington D.C. and California they fail to realize that the "fly over" areas of our nation notice their distortions of truth on the issue of gun control or firearms. A person in New York city may not understand the difference between a semi-auto rifle and a fully automatic assault rifle used by the military. Such a person may see a video of a fully automatic rifle firing and believe that it is indeed the same weapon that can be bought in the average local gun store in the United States. A person who lives in an area of the country that is gun friendly immediately sees the difference and is angered because he feels he is being treated as a simpleton.

They might learn a lot if they honestly considered this map. All their anti-firearm and concealed carry propaganda has failed miserably.

Of course, rather than admit that their biased propaganda has totally failed they chose to blame the NRA and its 4.5 million members for their failure. The NRA is indeed powerful but many gun owners do not belong to the organization. Unfortunately for the media a gun owner doesn't have to be an NRA member to know lies, deceit, distortion and dishonesty when it is shoved in their face. When someone who is unfamiliar with firearms has watched a piece of media propaganda and talks to a gun owner, the gun owner will be more than happy to point out the falsehoods.

Now I personally believe think that Rachel Maddow is one of the best, if not the best, commentators on the 24/7 cable news programs. During the interview the OP links to, she did mention that hi-cap magazines were readily available during the assault weapons ban. This happens at three minutes into the video. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy mentions that under her bill you could own such "clips" but could not legally transfer them. I have also watched interviews in which Rachel says that the AWB would have prevented Loughner from legally purchasing an "extended magazine". So at least Rachel is sometimes honest on the issue which is a little better than many other commentators.

While I can forgive an occasional mistake, I feel she would be wiser to be consistent and honest. Hi-cap or "extended" magazines were always readily available during the assault weapons ban. All the regular shooters that I knew, except me, purchased them for a highly inflated price. If the assault weapons ban was still in effect, Jared Lee Loughner would have been able to purchase several.

Maybe I am unique, but I have no problem swapping magazines while shooting. With practice a shooter can change magazines in a second or less. Massacres have been accomplished with magazines that only hold ten rounds. The truth is that often a hi-cap magazine or an extended magazine has a higher chance of jamming a firearm than a ten round magazine and it often takes longer to clear a jam than to change magazines.

In fact, some news stories say that Loughner's gun jammed which allowed him to be subdued. He may well have killed far more people had he had ten round magazines which are extremely reliable.

Loughner fired all 31 bullets in the magazine and was reloading when a woman in the crowd, already wounded, attempted to grab the gun from him. He finally changed the magazine and tried to fire, but the gun jammed. Meanwhile, two men from the crowd grabbed him and subdued him, officials said.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/09/nation/la-na-0110-gabrielle-giffords-20110110

“It is my understanding that Loughner's second magazine jammed - thereby giving bystanders a chance to tackle him.

In my experience high capacity mags are prone to this - especially if they are not properly cleaned and kept clean, since the spring action has to travel further and becomes relatively weaker as this occurs. This is why assault rifle mags are limited to about 30 rounds and 50's while readily available are not popular. you get a way better result by taping a couple of mags together back to back.

I would seriously believe that the fact that he was using high capacity mags may have actually limited the damage he was able to do thatn if he was using standard mags..”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/voyager48/fiancee-of-giffords-victim-works-hill-gun-control_n_847929_84187461.html

Now if I can find these facts, why can't the media including Rachel Maddow discover them and include them in their interviews?

The Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights is an amazing progressive and very liberal concept as it allows the average citizen of our nation to have the means not only to successfully defend themselves against predators but to possibly overthrow a tyrannical dictatorship if one were ever to take control in the United States. Unfortunately allowing citizens to have access to firearms does occasionally lead to tragedy. We have by some estimates 300 million firearms in this country. The fact that we have so few tragedies shows that the overwhelming majority of citizens are responsible enough to own and use them. We can always work to reduce firearm violence and in recent years violent crime has fallen dramatically in our nation despite the fact that the sale of firearms is at an all time high.

The First Amendment is possibly far more important than the Second to maintain a government that serves the people rather than oppresses them.

Both the First and Second Amendment involve a great deal of responsibility. Firearm owners need to realize this as does the main stream media. If the media willingly lies in order to deceive people it is as irresponsible, if not more so, than firearm owners who fail to secure their firearms from children or handle them while drunk or use their weapons for criminal activity.

We have the longest lasting written constitution in the world today quite possibly because of the Bill of Rights and especially because of the First and Second Amendments. If we fail to realize the importance of the First and Second Amendments and treat them as foolish words written by ancient dead men, perhaps we do not deserve the freedoms we enjoy.

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Reply #46: Why honesty in the media is so important ... [View All]