Media are rabid controlists
The following is a response to the editorial of May 15, titled “Gun control conversation must continue.”
I agree with the editor that the gun control debate should continue, alas, for different reasons.
The media has been quite successful in distorting reality, in an effort to foist a truth resistant bias towards firearms onto the public. Too often, these media experts turn out to have done little or no research on the subject before they express their shallow opinions.
This rush to manipulate your thinking is not confined to just firearms. Members of the media are rabid controlists. They will tell you anything in the hopes you will believe and act on it.
The editor seems to think that expanded background checks will reduce gun violence, and points to an apparent drug dealer who had a cache of firearms, including an assault rifle!
Drug dealers, by virtue of the risks of their jobs, do not typically have long careers. Out of need for self preservation, they must have weapons available, just as a carpenter requires a hammer and saw.
Criminals, including drug dealers, are very likely to have multiple identities, some of which will be clean. A clean industry will get you a gun legally! President Obama turned down a plan to require biometric identification in order to purchase a weapon. This would have made stolen or faked identities worthless!
On the other hand, closing the legal I.D. loop-hole will most likely result in more home brake-ins and invasions, with criminals seeking guns.
The editor goes on to state that, “There is no reason for any civilian to possess an assault rifle.” It is obvious that this same editor is unlikely to have ever had her life threatened, or been shot at.
Trust me, if some interloper is intent on doing you physical harm, an assault rifle is just marginally acceptable for self protection!
The media has made it their life’s ambition to paint assault style rifles as just a step below a nuclear bomb in terms of danger. The truth be known, rifles, both assault style as well as conventional, are used in very few murders; more men dieing from auto-erotic asphyxia yearly!
Should we continue to have a conversation on gun control? Yes, provided we can agree to rely on fact and truth rather than emotion and hyperbolism.
Ron Boocks
Venetia