Deconstructing the NY Times Unthoughtful Calls for Unconstitutional Action
On Black Friday, as Americans were setting another record in single-day firearm purchases, the Times editorial board was decrying the lack of action in Congress on gun control, and calling for President Obama to keep his promises to pursue gun control legislation.
In typical, disingenuous Times fashion, they denigrated gun owners for taking Obama’s “tepid remark” about gun control during the presidential debates as a threat, and then characterized these same remarks from Obama as “promises” to pursue a new “assault weapons” ban and to go after “cheap handguns.”
So which is it, Times? Are Americans crazy to think that Obama might impose restrictions on the firearms they want to own, or did Obama “promise” to do just that?
The Times editors then repeat the common lie that “in his first term Mr. Obama did nothing to cross the gun lobby, ” and cite, as proof of his conciliatory attitude toward gun owners, the fact that he signed legislation requiring that national parks follow the gun laws of the states in which they are located. Never mind that the pro-rights legislation was attached to a credit card bill that Obama desperately wanted. Never mind Obama’s active support of an anti-gun UN arms trade treaty. Never mind his requiring registration of semi-auto rifles in southern
The Times editors suggest that politicians, cowed by “the gun lobby,” are afraid to take action to prevent firearm-related tragedies. They complain that these politicians “refuse to say much about the 30,000 American lives that are lost each year because of shootings.”
Both assertions are intentionally misleading. Certainly many politicians take care to avoid incurring the wrath of GunVoters. Eighty million gun owners represent a lot of political clout. As to the 30,000 statistic, first, those lives are not lost “because of shootings.” They are lost because of people’s actions. Over half of all firearm-related deaths are suicides. In the
The Times editorial says that “mass shootings… seem to happen ever more frequently,” but the number of multiple-victim shootings has dropped from 150 in 2009 to about 25 in 2012. Prior to that, Gary Kleck, professor of Criminology at
So either the editorial board at the Times ignored the obvious in their incredibly sloppy and biased “research,” or they intentionally misrepresented the data. The only reason these tragedies might “seem to happen ever more frequently” is bias and distortion from people like the editorial board of the Times.
This agitprop piece from the Times wraps up with more standard Brady, anti-gun rhetoric, but they suggest no effective solutions. They mention bans on “assault weapons,” large capacity magazines, and private transfers, but all of those things have been tried and proven to be ineffective at reducing crime, suicide, and accidents.
Crime, violence, and suicide are social problems, not tool problems. According to Kleck, guns are used in self-defense some 2.5 million times a year. Increasing restrictions on firearms is more likely to result in more crime, not less. As a matter of fact, recent studies show that violent crime, including “gun crime,” has been steadily going down over the past 20 years while the number of guns and their easy access has gone up dramatically.
While there is reasoned debate over whether more guns result in less crime, as economist John Lott has famously claimed, the idea that more guns result in more crime has been thoroughly debunked, as have claims that any gun control law actually reduces crime. Suggestions to the contrary are based solely on emotion and irrational fear.
Permission to reprint or post this article in its entirety is hereby granted provided this credit and link is included. Text is available at www.FirearmsCoalition.org. To receive The Firearms Coalition’s bi-monthly newsletter, The Knox Hard Corps Report, write to