Editor Workman shown field-testing a Ruger SR556. – Dave Workman photo
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Days after three Washington State teens enjoying a summer gathering at a private home north of Seattle were murdered in a shooting, a columnist for the Seattle Times penned an article that essentially blamed the gun and the company that made it.
Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat talked plenty about the firearm, a Ruger SR556, and about the Sturm, Ruger company’s contribution pledge of $5 million to the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action. The money will help fund the battle to protect the Second Amendment.
What seemed to ignite much of the criticism of Westneat’s article, and there was plenty, was the headline: “Maker of massacre gun steps up to fund NRA lobbying arm.” They saw this as a clear case of media bias and a not-so-subtle attempt to demonize the firearm and Ruger.
Three years ago, Westneat uncovered language buried in legislation aimed at banning so-called “assault weapons” that would have allowed warrantless searches by police of gun owners’ homes. TGM also covered that controversy, and when the story broke, it didn’t take long for the sponsors, all Democrat state lawmakers, to kill the bill.
The alleged killer in this case is a 19-year-old ex-boyfriend of the single female victim. He allegedly came to the party, saw her chatting with another male, and went on his killing rampage. But there is a twist to this story. The suspect bought the gun legally, but he apparently had to sit in his car for a while, reading the instruction manual. Now anti-gunners are capitalizing on this case to argue that such firearms should not be sold to teens.
Columnist Westneat seemed to concur, referring to the contribution Ruger will reportedly make to the NRA legislative effort.
“Not to gun training or to help victims of gun violence or anything of that sort,” he lamented. “But to the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, the NRA’s arm for lobbying against any and all new gun restrictions.”
Second Amendment advocates contend this makes sense, considering the effort by anti-gunners to exploit the triple-slaying in order to push their gun ban agenda.
Other gun industry companies are essentially doing the same thing by contributing to the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s “Gun Vote” project.
The suspect in Mukilteo’s mayhem reportedly tweeted “what’s Ruger gonna think?”
Ruger’s SR556 is visually similar to other semi-auto modern sporting rifles, generically dubbed “MSRs.”
While Westneat criticized Ruger for “leveraging the public’s legitimate anxiety about mass shootings to…raise money for the very purpose of blocking” new gun control laws, he did not show the same indignation over efforts by the gun prohibition lobby to raise funds by “leveraging the public’s anxiety” about so-called “gun violence.”
The Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility has been feverishly sending e-mail blasts, warning recipients that, “We’re fighting to reduce gun violence in communities across the country. But the gun lobby will do whatever it takes to see us fail.” These are fund raisers, invariably asking for contributions ranging upwards from $5.
