More on ABC & Guns
A lot more on 20/20’s hit piece on guns from David Rittgers:
Picking people without concealed carry permits to represent the armed citizen and rigging the scenario to ensure that they don’t defeat your narrative is propaganda, not journalism.
Meanwhile, Sensibly Progressive on the hatchet job:
Ms. Sawyer set out to do an anti-gun piece, the real central question of which was “why don’t we have stricter gun laws” (asked repeatedly), and she succeeded.
April 13th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
I don’t think “Picking people without concealed carry permits to represent the armed citizen” is a problem; after all, most armed citizens do not have concealed carry permits.
Rigging the scenario is a problem. Portraying spree shootings as a typical gun-crime is a problem. Choosing a highly trained, very disciplined police officer to portray the shooter is a problem.
Failing to mention that nowhere near all cops are that well trained is a problem. Failing to mention David Codrea’s “Only Ones” effect is a problem. Failing to mention that spree-shootings overwhelmingly take place in posted “gun-free zones” is a problem.
But setting concealed carry permit holders as typical gun owners is opening the door to calls for abusive registration and licensing requirements that reduce our rights rather than regulate them.
The fact is, most crimes stopped by law-abiding gun owners are one-on-crimes like rapes and robberies. Moreover, while my anecdotal impression is that many of those involve defenders with good credentials, many do not, including accounts like little old ladies shooting through-the-window intruders with their deceased husband’s all but forgotten nightstand gun. Then there’s the many, many crimes deterred by merely displaying a firearm.
Training is good. I like training. I think Congress should use its Constitutional mandate to establish a militia to fund and equip high school militia courses equivalent to drivers’ ed courses, and I have no objection to the kind of loose licensing drivers’ ed results in — the effort is to license everyone, not to limit licenses to a select few.
But the RKBA should not be dependent on any level of training, at all. A militia license should confer additional privileges above and beyond the simple right to keep and bear (along with additional responsibilities, such as being on the phone tree). Concealed carry would be a good example of such a privilege.
Nevertheless, if your only training is that you should point the barrel away from you before pulling the trigger, that’s enough to exercise the right, and my belief is that the more citizens we have who exercise that right, regardless of training, the safer we all will be.
April 13th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
60 minutes did a similiar hit piece on Sunday night. They quoted some numbnuts who said it was easy to buy a gun as a candy bar was the highlight of the show.
April 13th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Actually, the 60 minutes piece wasn’t near as bad as 20/20. it had lies in it but what MS gun story doesn’t these days?
http://gungeekrants.blogspot.com/2009/04/60-minutes-gun-piece.html
April 13th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Markie Marxist sez: “ABC’s 20/20 with Diane Sawyer proved that private citizens can’t defend themselves with guns, so we might as well ban private gun ownership. It’s just common sense communism!”
April 13th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
First off, I think the ABC special was obviously a hit piece set up to advance an agenda. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t some elements of truth to it.
The fact is, (at least in Arizona), the amount of training required to get a CCW is woefully inadequate to the task of protecting your life and the lives of those around. No, extra training shouldn’t be a requirement to get a CCW, but just as a driver’s license doesn’t equips you to deal with black ice, a CCW doesn’t teach you how to defend your life.
I got my CCW two years ago, and after the NRA Personal Protection classes, a year+ of USPSA and monthly trips to the range, only now do I feel reasonably confident that I will react quickly and appropriately to a life-threatening situation.
Again I say: I don’t want extra training piled on the CCW requirements, but I think we supporters of safe, legal carry need to stress the importance of stress-training and realistic practice every chance we get.
April 13th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
I believe the 20/20 piece was a set up to push a agenda. Someone should ask Ms Sawyer who had the oringinal idea to produce the show. She may believe in gun control but she could see it was one sided, so she may have been instructed to do it. In science when a test is run a control group is needed for comparison, in this case that would be called a – gun free zone.
April 15th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Pushing an agenda is right. You look back at all the shooting crimes that have been in the news along with the Mexico gun debacle, it’s clear. Also, the shooting scenario was totally rigged. Hello! The shooter knew who the “exhibit a” was and automatically took him out. In a real scenario, the shooter would have no idea who was actually armed. http://tinyurl.com/cf4nsj