Gunbloggers (and Other Interested Parties): FIREMISSION!

Being a knuckle-dragging, rednecked, pickup-driving, Bush-loving Neanderthal ignorant racist gun owner with one tooth and a two-digit IQ like I am, I was listening to NPR this afternoon while running some errands. Weekend America was on, and they ran a little blurb for an upcoming segment that piqued my interest. They’re going to do a piece on gun control early next year, and they’re looking for questions from their audience. The site is WeekendAmerica.org, and if you look over at the right-hand column, you’ll find this link to click:

» Sound off: Early next year, we’ll take on the hot-button topic of guns and gun control. No doubt, you probably have a few questions of your own. We’d like to hear from you.

Well! Not one to pass up such an invitation, when I got home I headed straight for my computer and (without knocking over my spit-cup on the keyboard!) one-finger-typed in the following:

My question, if I am limited to only one, is why do gun control proponents so often find it necessary to twist, obfuscate, exaggerate, and sometimes outright and apparently quite deliberately lie to support their agenda?

This is not to say that the gun-rights side is pure as the driven snow, but I’ve studied this topic in detail for the last ten years, and one side is more wrong, more often, more egregiously, and more blatantly than the other by a large margin.

Now, as an informed observer it’s generally immediately apparent to me when either side lies, but I find it fascinating that whatever comes out of the gun-control groups is often accepted at face value by the media, (is often, in fact, misinterpreted and/or inflated) and is propagated as though it was unimpeachable, whereas whatever comes out of the gun-rights groups (when it’s reported accurately at all) is nearly always prefaced with a warning that it comes from “the gun lobby,” or some other disclaimer.

On further thought, let me rephrase my question: Why doesn’t the media treat the press releases of gun-control organizations with at least as much skepticism as it does the press releases of the NRA and like organizations?

If you’d like more questions, I have plenty.

Thank you for your attention.

Do you have a question for Weekend America on the topic of guns and gun control? Please, feel free to drop them a line. They’d love to hear from you!

Edited to add: If you would be so kind, please copy your questions into a comment on this post. I’m really interested.