The term “fake news” has come to mean many different things. For some, it refers to false stories created by social media tricksters who mix a few facts with a lot of falsehoods and then get unsuspecting Facebook, Instagram or Twitter users to forward them again and again.
Facebook has been reporting on how they are taking steps to stop the spread of false stories. OK, who will decide what’s false? I frankly don’t have a lot of faith in Zuckerberg and his minions.
YouTube, in their effort to be politically correct, has hamstrung many video creators who provide good and factual information on firearms and shooting. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but as one post pointed out, they still allow crazy things like a guy telling people to take turpentine for health reasons.
Yikes.
We gun owners and shooters know that many “fake news” stories involve blatant factual errors in news stories published in national newspapers or shown on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and other mainstream news. If you don’t know guns, you may not know you are being spoon-fed falsehoods.
Many of us hunters were very nervous after the latest shooting in Texas. I was surprised to hear that the killer had used a .38 Special revolver and a common, ordinary shotgun. Most media and anti-gunners have long since given up trying to take away our handguns, as they once tried when Sarah Brady’s Handgun Control Inc. and others insisted they weren’t trying to take away our hunting guns, but just our handguns!
Then states one by one discovered that civilian concealed carry was one of the best violent crime stoppers of all. John Lott Jr. in his landmark book, “More Guns, Less Crime,” spelled out in excruciating detail how counties with strict gun laws had much higher crime rates than those counties with gun-friendly laws. Now every state in the nation has some form of concealed carry, although many counties in big cities, such as Los Angeles and Chicago, continue to maintain restrictive gun laws. Lott interviewed violent criminals, who said they did not fear the police (the odds are slim that a cop will be there when a mugging, rape or murder occurs), but they did fear armed citizens, who are more apt to shoot first and ask questions later.
All of us gun owners know that the latest assault on gun ownership is aimed at blacks — namely black rifles. These AR-15 and similar semi-automatic rifles have the same actions as other semi-autos dating back to the 1890s, but because of cosmetic changes that make them look scary, they are the new enemies of the national media.
We never expected a mass murderer would take up a garden-variety hunting shotgun, but we were dreading the day because then even bird and rabbit hunters would lose their last excuse to join the fight to preserve the 2nd Amendment. And the gun-ignorant media would suddenly discover the most potentially dangerous close-range weapon of all: the common shotgun.
It’s surprising how many Wisconsin residents don’t understand that a shotgun typically fires many small pellets (300 or more with common sizes of birdshot) that create a large pattern of shot as wide as 20 feet or more. There’s a reason shotguns were used in trench warfare as far back as World War I and police carried shotguns in their squad cars for decades (some still do, although carbines have largely replaced them). One shotgun shell could kill multiple people with one shot out to about 40 yards under the right conditions. OK, now the secret’s out. Cue the protesters with their Ban the Shotgun signs.
Wait a second. Let’s not overestimate the knowledge of the national media. In this case, USA Today.
I learned through Facebook that USA Today had mentioned the 17-year-old boy who killed 10 people at a Santa Fe, TX, high school used “less lethal” weapons, or it could have been worse.
Huh?
Of course, they want us all to continue to falsely believe that the evil AR-15 is the most dangerous weapon ever devised. This false narrative, repeated by folks who don’t know a shotgun shoots multiple pellets, is a perfect example of “fake news.”
We can only assume they weren’t talking about the .38 Special revolver, because the antis and media spent many decades telling us how dangerous handguns were. In fact, handguns are still used to kill many thousands of people every year. Just a fact, but it’s a fraction of the 300 million guns in America, the vast majority of which are used for legitimate reasons by mostly honest citizens, police and security.
Shotguns, you may recall, were the self-defense weapons Vice President Joe Biden recommended, although he didn’t mention the significant recoil that the common 12-gauge shotgun has for smaller, younger shooters. An AR-15 is much easier to shoot and remain on target than a shotgun, all other things being equal. Surviving a close-range shotgun blast is extremely unlikely, while a .223/5.56 round from an AR-15 can miss vital organs.
I’d love to see all gun owners, hunters and believers of the Constitution come together and join the NRA, whether you hunt pheasants, turkeys and deer or just enjoy shooting and collecting firearms. A 17-year-old boy can’t legally own any firearm, so no new gun law would have affected his situation. We all know that existing gun laws never affect a criminal’s ability to get firearms, any more than existing drug laws stop people from getting pot, heroin or LSD.
If the National Rifle Association had 40 million members instead of 4 million, perhaps we could end the debate on punishing the innocent for the crimes of mass murderers. Now it’s time for bird hunters, bunny hunters and other shotgun owners to enter the fray and join the ranks of the freedom fighters.