Media forced to correct NRA gun ban report
What price jumping to conclusions costs the media for incorrect information, especially if it is a spurious “gotcha” hypocrisy charge against the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Just before the NRA’s annual meeting and convention was about to start, the Associated Press (AP) issued a report claiming that the NRA was banning the audience from bearing arms during Vice President Pence’s scheduled May 4 speech at its annual meeting in Dallas.
The AP report led to several media outlets echoing the claim, suggesting that the NRA did not allow its own members to carry arms.
Then, on April 30 the AP issued a new correction report that clarified that the Secret Service had in fact made the call.
The AP had deleted a tweet that incorrectly said the NRA had banned guns during Trump and Pence speeches at its annual meeting. The ban was put in place by the Secret Service. A corrected tweet is coming.
In fact, the NRA members were allowed to bring their guns with them during most of the annual meeting in Dallas – but not while Trump and Pence are speaking. As is their custom, the Secret Service barred guns, knives and other “weapons” during their speeches.
It wasn’t the NRA that was embarrassed, but the media giant and all of its subscribers who relied on the press agency’s usual high reputation for accuracy.
But when it comes to guns, how often does the establishment media get it right the first time.
The NRA also issued a statement on April 30, stating the Secret Service “will be responsible for event security” during the president’s and vice president’s speeches.
“As a result, firearms and firearm accessories, knives or weapons of any kind will be prohibited in the forum prior to and during attendance,” the NRA statement said.
NY attorney general caught in his own web
Just a few weeks ago, then New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman praised the New Yorker Magazine after that publication shared a Pulitzer Prize for Ronan Farrow’s investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against film mogul Harvey Weinstein.
“Without the reporting of the @nytimes and the @newyorker – and the brave women and men who spoke up about the sexual harassment they endured at the hands of powerful men – there would not be the critical national reckoning underway,” Schneiderman tweeted then.
But suddenly it was Farrow and Jane Mayer reporting on four women accusing Schneiderman of physical abuse. One of them, Michelle Manning Barish, said she “could not remain silent and encourage other women to be brave for me.” Schneiderman initially responded to the allegations of physical violence by saying he’d engaged in “role-playing and other consensual sexual activity.””
However, three hours later, Schneiderman, who has a long history of anti-gun advocacy going back to his state Senate days and as state attorney general, resigned.
His sudden departure puts an exclamation mark on the state’s new law requiring every business in the state, presumably including the state government, to conduct annually sexual harassment training for all employees.
CA Democrat urges ban, buy-up of all semi-auto
Rep. Eric Swalwell, an anti-gun Democrat from Californi
sa’s San Francisco Bay area, surprised a lot of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle with an Op-Ed column in USA Today on May 3.
Saying “Australia got it right. After a man used military-style weapons to kill 35 people in April 1996, that nation adopted strict new measures and bought back 643,726 newly illegal rifles and shotguns at market value,” Swalwell called for banning all “assault weapons,” making their possession illegal, and buying up any such guns already in possession by civilians.
The cost to Australia, Swalwell wrote was an estimated $230 million in US dollars at the time —funded by a temporary 0.2% tax levy on national health insurance.
Then he said, “America won’t get off that cheaply. Gun ownership runs so deep that we don’t even know how many military-style semiautomatic rifles are in U.S. civilian hands.
“Based on manufacturing figures and other indirect data, there could be 15 million assault weapons out there. If we offer $200 to buy back each weapon — as many local governments have — then it would cost about $3 billion; at $1,000 each, the cost would be about $15 billion.
“It’s no small sum. But let’s put it in context,” Swalwell wrote.
“America has a deadly problem, a problem other developed nations have avoided or addressed,” he continued.” Some say we’re already too far gone to take corrective action, but we cannot have a defeatist attitude about this. Fixing our problem requires boldness and will be costly, but the cost of letting it fester will be far higher — for our wallets, and for our souls.”
Swalwell is co-chair of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, and serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
However, Swalwell praised Australia’s gun buy-up scheme, it did not insulate Australian communities from mass murders.
Eight days after his column appeared, news reports from Australia were fixated on that nation’s deadliest mass shooting “in more than 20 years,” after seven people, including four children, were discovered dead on a rural property near Margaret River in Western Australia.
The shooting has rattled Australia, where lawmakers passed some of the world’s most restrictive gun-control laws after a 1996 massacre in Tasmania.
Kasich leads Ohio gun control effort
Ohio is poised to become one of the states changing gun laws after the Stoneman Douglas massacre — and the governor has enlisted the help of a Parkland, FL, dad to make it happen, according to the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.
Fred Guttenberg is the father of 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg, one of the 17 killed in the Feb. 14 Parkland school shooting. He was invited to testify before the Ohio Legislature by Gov. John Kasich, the former presidential candidate.
“He asked me to come and testify about what happened here in Florida and what it’s meant to our community — if red-flag [laws] had existed prior to Feb. 14 the outcome could have been different,” Guttenberg said. “I’ll testify about how it’s working in the state of Florida now that the law has been passed.”
Florida is among 13 states that have already tightened gun control laws or passed legislation aimed at improving school safety since the Feb. 14 tragedy, according to a review by the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The other 12 states are Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.
Ohio is among dozens of other states also looking at proposals in response. Gov. Kasich has recommended changes, including prohibiting those under domestic violence protection orders from buying or possessing firearms; and clarifying Ohio’s prohibition on third-party gun purchases. The law would allow families to appeal to law enforcement to keep guns away from relatives who are a danger to themselves or society.
UK newspaper targets crossbows
Saying “Deadly assault rifle-style crossbows are available on high streets and online without any need for a license or background checks,” a British newspaper, the Daily Express, on May 14 launched its crusade calling on the British government to crack down on the sale of the potentially lethal weapons which can be bought without having to give details of identity or a reason for their use.
“We were able to visit a shop yards from one of Britain’s busiest city center high streets and buy a high-velocity 175lb Panther crossbow which boasts the promise ‘Built for power,’ the newspaper reported.
Experts say they are more powerful than some air rifles that have to be licensed, the Express reported.
Members of Parliament have urged the government to ban the devices.
NRA, CRPA suit targets California ammo regulations
On April 26, attorneys for Olympian Kim Rhode, the National Rifle Association and California Rifle and Pistol Association filed a federal lawsuit challenging California’s restrictions regarding the sale or transfer of ammunition.
These restrictions, enacted in 2016 as part of the so-called “Gunmageddon” bills and Proposition 63, require all ammunition sales and transfers to be conducted via face-to-face transactions at California licensed firearm dealers or licensed ammunition vendors. And beginning July 1, 2019, all ammunition purchasers will be required to pass a background check before taking delivery of any ammunition.
Leading the lawsuit is Rhode, a six-time Olympic medal winner who uses specialized ammunition approved by the International Shooting Sport Federation during the competitions she participates in. Joining her are several other law-abiding California gun owners and the following out of state businesses which can no longer ship ammunition directly to their California customers.
The lawsuit, titled Rhode v. Becerra, challenges the state’s new ammunition sales restrictions as a violation of the Second Amendment, Commerce Clause, and Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution. The lawsuit also challenges the restrictions as being preempted by the Firearm Owner’s Protection Act.
The filing of Rhode marks the fourth lawsuit filed by NRA and CRPA attorneys challenging the provisions of Proposition 63 and the other “Gunmageddon” bills. One such lawsuit, titled Duncan v. Becerra, has already succeeded in obtaining an important injunction against Proposition 63’s ban on the possession of magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds. The other two suits, titled Rupp v. Becerra and Villanueva v. Becerra, both of which challenge California’s “assault weapon” restrictions and registration requirements, are also seeking injunctions while those lawsuits are pending.
GA county votes to arm teachers
The Fannin County, GA, School Board voted in early May unanimously to arm teachers who volunteer to carry, according to WSBTX-Channel 2.
Under the new policy, teachers can have guns holstered. Guns in bags or purses are not allowed, Channel 2’s Lori Wilson said. Fannin County is north of Atlanta and borders Tennessee.
Teachers allowed to participate will receive training on judgment, pistol and long gun shooting at a minimum.
The proposal says that employees must be approved by the Board of Education and the Fannin County Sheriff before they’re allowed to carry weapons on school grounds.
School officials told Wilson the idea of arming teachers is something that has been on the table since April.
OK governor vetoes constitutional carry
Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Mary Fallin vetoed a bill in May that would have authorized adults to carry firearms without a permit or training, dealing a rare defeat to the National Rifle Association in a conservative state, USA Today reported.
The veto comes after opposition from the business community and law enforcement authorities, including top officials with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation who have said it could erode public safety.
The NRA had supported the bill’s passage and had urged Fallin to sign it.
In a statement announcing her veto, Fallin stressed her support for the Second Amendment, saying:.
“I believe the firearms laws we currently have in place are effective, appropriate and minimal,” adding that the bill would have eliminated the requirement for a training course.
Judge rules out NRA ‘Jane Does’ in Florida suit
A federal judge ruled in May that anonymous teenage plaintiffs helping to challenge Florida’s sweeping anti-gun law must identify themselves publicly, even as he acknowledged the order would probably expose them to intense leftist “vitriol” and “harassment.”
In what media reports indicated was “a surprising turn,” US District Judge Mark Walker even suggested that he personally wanted to side with the National Rifle Association (NRA), which wants to shield the young plaintiffs’ identities, but said his hands were ultimately tied by court precedent the Washington Times reported.
“If it were entirely up to this court, the court would not hesitate to grant the NRA’s motion,” Walker wrote in his ruling. “One need only look to the harassment suffered by some of the Parkland shooting survivors to appreciate the vitriol that has infected public discourse about the Second Amendment. And this court has no doubt the harassment goes both ways.”
The NRA filed the lawsuit on Second Amendment grounds soon after Florida lawmakers approved gun legislation that would raise the age to buy guns to 21 years old. The age restriction is one part of a larger anti-gun bill signed by Gov. Rick Scott in the wake of the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead.
Citing the harassment of one of its top Florida officials who was subjecting to threatening and profanity-laced emails and phone calls, attorneys for the NRA wanted to include a 19-year-old woman as a plaintiff in the lawsuit but wanted to keep her name confidential and instead identify her as “Jane Doe.”
The NRA also sought to include testimony from another 19-year-old man as well. The move was challenged by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The NRA has been in the crosshairs of anti-gun activists for the past several months, with Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg leading boycotts of corporations and politicians who refuse to summarily cut ties with the organization.
