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Howard Kurtz

Will the media stay focused on gun control?

This is not a plea for a press-driven crusade for gun control. In fact, it’s imperative that journalists be seen as honest brokers who are fair to all sides. MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts, in an interview with Republican Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia, who opposes gun restrictions, said: “So we need to just be complacent in the fact that we can send our children to school to be assassinated.” That is demonization, just as some conservative pundits are unfairly accusing liberal commentators who push for gun control of “politicizing” a tragedy or of pushing God out of the public schools.

The question of school safety extends beyond guns to mental illness and societal influences. With even some NRA supporters asking why law-abiding hunters need automatic rifles with high-capacity magazines, it’s time for a nuanced debate that goes beyond the usual finger-pointing. Bob Costas got hammered for using an NFL murder-suicide to raise the gun issue during a halftime commentary, but he was right to broach the subject.

Here is where the media have not just an opportunity but a responsibility. The news business has no problem giving saturation coverage to such salacious stories as David Petraeus’ dalliance with Paula Broadwell. Isn’t keeping our children safe from lunatics far more important by an order of magnitude?

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Isn’t keeping our children safe from lunatics far more important by an order of magnitude?

And how does disarming fine, upstanding citizens do that?

Seems to me it accomplishes the opposite if you look at the evidence logically.

ProfShadow on December 22, 2012 at 7:42 PM

With even some NRA supporters asking why law-abiding hunters need automatic rifles with high-capacity magazines, it’s time for a nuanced debate that goes beyond the usual finger-pointing.

The 2nd amendment isn’t to protect hunting rights. It’s to protect against a tyrannical government. “some NRA supporters” need to get a clue.

Kataklysmic on December 22, 2012 at 7:44 PM

This is not a plea for a press-driven crusade for gun control.

Um, yes, it is. Go away Howie.

bernzright777 on December 22, 2012 at 7:48 PM

This is not a plea for a press-driven crusade for gun control. In fact, it’s imperative that journalists be seen as honest brokers who are fair to all sides.

How can he write this crap with a straight face?

Blake on December 22, 2012 at 7:49 PM

I don’t know Mr. High Magazine Clip. Sometimes, I’m not even sure if you’re even writing about firearms issues when you say you are writing about firearms issues.

Dusty on December 22, 2012 at 7:59 PM

[Blake on December 22, 2012 at 7:49 PM]

LOL. Well he did say they only need to be seen as being fair, not that they actually have to be fair.

Dusty on December 22, 2012 at 8:01 PM

No

cozmo on December 22, 2012 at 8:01 PM

This is not a plea for a press-driven crusade for gun control.

These are not the droids you’re looking for…

cicerone on December 22, 2012 at 8:04 PM

And how does disarming fine, upstanding citizens do that?

You disarm everybody, so that the few nuts are also disarmed. If Lanza’s mom wasn’t a gun nut, her son wouldn’t have had access to those guns. You can’t eliminate mental illness, but you sure can eliminate guns.

Just as with nuclear weapons, one can say that a nuclear-armed world is a safer world, but we know that allowing any country who wants one to have one, would be a very bad idea, because sooner or later, nuts will get their hands on them. So we do our best to restrict the ownership of nuclear weapons, or biological weapons, or chemical weapons, so that we are protected from the FEW nuts who would use such a thing. Just as there is no global right to possess weapons of mass destruction, there shouldn’t be any right for individuals to possess guns – especially handguns.

The political will to do something about the availability of guns is so strong, and the distaste of the whole culture becomes greater with each massacre, that it is only a matter of a few years before the purchase and sale of handguns becomes so problematic that you don’t even need to bother with the second amendment. You sue the companies out of existence. You ban the ammo. You make the ownership is onerous, as it is in Canada, that owning handguns becomes such a pain that few people will bother.

keep the change on December 22, 2012 at 8:05 PM

keep the change on December 22, 2012 at 8:05 PM

Bless your heart.

Some people are such ignorant unicorn dreamers that you just have to smile at their stupidity.

How are you coming with banning air races?

cozmo on December 22, 2012 at 8:08 PM

it’s imperative that journalists be seen as honest brokers who are fair to all sides.

If journalists actually were honest brokers, they wouldn’t have to be so concerned about appearances of their blatant, repugnant, fascistic press-driven crusade, jihad if you prefer, or as Michelle termed it, Witch Hunt.

some NRA supporters asking why law-abiding hunters need automatic rifles with high-capacity magazines

Those kind of “supporters” that will burn the self-defense oriented members in an ill advised “compromise” to keep their duck guns for a few more weeks? Those people need to take a long hard look at themselves.

Isn’t keeping our children safe from lunatics far more important by an order of magnitude?

If it were, the effort would be organized around solutions that might address that problem, instead of opportunistic attacks on political enemies.

Kenosha Kid on December 22, 2012 at 8:12 PM

cozmo, what I am predicting, is exactly what people like you admit to be afraid of. So who is the dreamer? I am merely telling you that as the rest of the civilized world has gone, so too the US.

Lets get the party civil war started!

cozmo on December 22, 2012 at 7:05 PM

BTW, that kind of extremist talk not only will get you banned from hotair, but it is exactly the kind of paranoid mentality that is driving your side of the argument.

keep the change on December 22, 2012 at 8:12 PM

It depends on whatever Obama tells them to do.

And for crazys like keep the change, replace the word gun with abortion. You see that obsessed crazy is crazy and the very same crazy. No matter what direction it swings in from.

These people are gone.

Moesart on December 22, 2012 at 8:16 PM

You disarm everybody, so that the few nuts are also disarmed. If Lanza’s mom wasn’t a gun nut, her son wouldn’t have had access to those guns. You can’t eliminate mental illness, but you sure can eliminate guns.

Just as with nuclear weapons, one can say that a nuclear-armed world is a safer world, but we know that allowing any country who wants one to have one, would be a very bad idea, because sooner or later, nuts will get their hands on them. So we do our best to restrict the ownership of nuclear weapons, or biological weapons, or chemical weapons, so that we are protected from the FEW nuts who would use such a thing. Just as there is no global right to possess weapons of mass destruction, there shouldn’t be any right for individuals to possess guns – especially handguns.

The political will to do something about the availability of guns is so strong, and the distaste of the whole culture becomes greater with each massacre, that it is only a matter of a few years before the purchase and sale of handguns becomes so problematic that you don’t even need to bother with the second amendment. You sue the companies out of existence. You ban the ammo. You make the ownership is onerous, as it is in Canada, that owning handguns becomes such a pain that few people will bother.

keep the change on December 22, 2012 at 8:05 PM

There are over 80 million gun owners in the US. How does one disarm them? Hell these days with the right equiptment you can make your own ammo, spare mags or even a gun itself.

Wish the networks would interview this guy.

http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/an-opinion-on-gun-control/

warren on December 22, 2012 at 8:17 PM

Guns are not that hard to make there for it is impossible to completely remove guns from society. It is possible to disarm the law abiding but that is a really bad idea.

Slowburn on December 22, 2012 at 8:18 PM

JournOlists will do whatever the Obysmal administration tells them to do.

Shouldn’t Howard and his fellow pencil pushers spend some time and research pursuing the Fast and Furious story?

onlineanalyst on December 22, 2012 at 8:18 PM

keep the change on December 22, 2012 at 8:12 PM

Double bless your ignorant nutball heart.

cozmo on December 22, 2012 at 8:21 PM

“With even some NRA supporters asking why law-abiding hunters need automatic rifles with high-capacity magazines …”

Uh, yeah, right. Although a few NRA “supporters” might think this way, you would be hard pressed to find a single NRA member who does. And the NRA is in the midst of one of their largest membership surges ever.

“The National Rifle Association, while staying mostly quiet in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting in Connecticut, has registered an average of 8,000 new members a day since the tragedy, an NRA source told Fox News. \

While this broadly aligns with trends seen after similar incidents in the past, the surge in membership this time is said to dwarf past trends.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/19/nra-sees-surge-in-membership-after-connecticut-school-shooting/

Pork-Chop on December 22, 2012 at 8:25 PM

You disarm everybody, so that the few nuts are also disarmed. If Lanza’s mom wasn’t a gun nut, her son wouldn’t have had access to those guns. You can’t eliminate mental illness, but you sure can eliminate guns.

keep the change on December 22, 2012 at 8:05 PM

If there is trouble at your mansion do just hide in the closet and hope the Polizi gets there in time? As for this particular “gun nut” I like to have options.

arnold ziffel on December 22, 2012 at 8:37 PM

arnold ziffel on December 22, 2012 at 8:37 PM

keepthe0bama is about as pansyass coward as they come.

Thinks the government can protect everybody from everything.

cozmo on December 22, 2012 at 8:39 PM

“You disarm everybody, so that the few nuts are also disarmed.”

“The political will to do something about the availability of guns is so strong…”

“You make the ownership is onerous, as it is in Canada, that owning handguns becomes such a pain that few people will bother.”

keep the change on December 22, 2012 at 8:05 PM

But, of course, we know that obama and his DISARMists, such as yourself, are really talking about something like this … and it has nothing to do with making society safer, for anyone but our government overseers …

“… post-World War I chaos, which led to the enactment in 1928 by the liberal Weimar republic of Germany’s first comprehensive gun control law. Next, the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 was consolidated by massive searches and seizures of firearms from political opponents, who were invariably described as “communists.”

After five years of repression and eradication of dissidents, Hitler signed a new gun control law in 1938, which benefitted Nazi party members and entities, but denied firearm ownership to enemies of the state. Later that year, in Kristallnacht (the Night of the Broken Glass), in one fell swoop, the Nazi regime disarmed Germany’s Jews. Without any ability to defend themselves, the Jewish population could easily be sent to concentration camps for the Final Solution. After World War II began, Nazi authorities continued to register and mistrust civilian firearm owners, and German resistence to the Nazi regime was unsuccessful.”

http://www.stephenhalbrook.com/article-nazilaw.pdf

Pork-Chop on December 22, 2012 at 8:40 PM

Pork-Chop on December 22, 2012 at 8:40 PM

The coward has already run off to cry.

cozmo on December 22, 2012 at 8:41 PM

How are you coming with banning air races?

cozmo on December 22, 2012 at 8:08 PM

rofl, forgot about that crusade. Does he and the mrs, and their chirren wear safety helmets when out doors?

arnold ziffel on December 22, 2012 at 8:43 PM

arnold ziffel on December 22, 2012 at 8:43 PM

and airbags…

cozmo on December 22, 2012 at 8:44 PM

As for this particular “gun nut” I like to have options.

arnold ziffel on December 22, 2012 at 8:37 PM

Last count was more than ten less than thirty. :)

arnold ziffel on December 22, 2012 at 8:45 PM

With even some NRA supporters asking why law-abiding hunters need automatic rifles with high-capacity magazines, it’s time for a nuanced debate that goes beyond the usual finger-pointing.

..uhhh. Automatic rifles?
Where can you buy those?

Mimzey on December 22, 2012 at 8:50 PM

In fact, it’s imperative that journalists be seen as honest brokers who are fair to all sides.

It’s too late for that Howie. Journalists are rightly seen as hard core leftists pursuing a socialist agenda.

keep the change on December 22, 2012 at 8:05 PM

How does rendering yourself defenseless make you safe? Have you learned nothing from the travesty of gun free zones?
How does turning over your self responsibility to the government make you safe from the depredations of evil men with power? How will that prevent the slaughter of 100 million innocents by government – again – as happened in the 20th century? Don’t say that’s all just history and it couldn’t happen again. The conditions that made it possible then still exist. The sickness of power lust and the willingness to kill for it still resides in the human psyche.

That’s what the 2nd Amendment is all about.

single stack on December 22, 2012 at 8:59 PM

..uhhh. Automatic rifles?
Where can you buy those?

Mimzey on December 22, 2012 at 8:50 PM

They’re near the fully automatic assault weapons in WalMart. You know–next to the extended clips.

Kataklysmic on December 22, 2012 at 8:59 PM

They’re near the fully automatic assault weapons in WalMart. You know–next to the extended high magazine clips.

FIFY

single stack on December 22, 2012 at 9:02 PM

In fact, it’s imperative that journalists be seen as honest brokers who are fair to all sides.

He means from left to far-left.

Marxism is for dummies on December 22, 2012 at 9:05 PM

keep the change on December 22, 2012 at 8:05 PM

How does anyone go through life who’s that full of sh!t?

Harbingeing on December 22, 2012 at 9:09 PM

Harbingeing on December 22, 2012 at 9:09 PM

Stinking up every place he goes.

cozmo on December 22, 2012 at 9:10 PM

They’re near the fully automatic assault weapons in WalMart. You know–next to the extended high magazine clips.

FIFY

single stack on December 22, 2012 at 9:02 PM

That’s “extended high magazine assault clips.”
Just so you know.

Harbingeing on December 22, 2012 at 9:11 PM

How does anyone go through life who’s that full of sh!t?

Harbingeing on December 22, 2012 at 9:09 PM

Dumb luck.

Kenosha Kid on December 22, 2012 at 9:24 PM

..uhhh. Automatic rifles?
Where can you buy those?

[Mimzey on December 22, 2012 at 8:50 PM]

ROTFL. I didn’t read his dreck. What an incompetent fool he is that he can’t get such a simple aspect of the debate correct.

I take that back. This was willfully wrong. The guttersnipe played the games of mislead and taint the debate in the same column where he tapped out platitudes about the media being seen as fair. I was right about his intention for saying “seen as fair”. He just meant as “be sure to dress the window carefully, team”.

Dusty on December 22, 2012 at 9:48 PM