Wednesday, March 09, 2005

New York Times & Gun Control

All nods to the instability

These guys are usually guaranteed to up my blood pressure any time they start to talk about firearms. The gross ignorance and outright stupidity they display on almost every occasion can be quite maddening. This is article is no exception. They immediately launch their comments with this little quip:

"The bad news is that 47 of them were cleared to go ahead anyway and buy assault rifles, ammunition or whatever else was on their firearms shopping list."

Wow. They're issuing class three licenses to the terrorists? Because, in order to buy and assault rifle (a full automatic combat rifle) one has to have a class three federal fire arms license that allows for the transfer of "machine guns" between individuals. What's that? Oh, you meant to say black, scary looking guns that are semi-automatic (one shot per trigger pull) instead of fully automatic (one trigger pull sends x-number of rounds down range). Then, they go on and even drop all pretense of trying to carefully use language to imply something that isn't true (assault weapons, the most frequently used term which of course refers to guns that look like combat weapons but aren't) and make a statement is actually, blatantly false:
Warnings about terror suspects' easy access to combat rifles grew after 9/11 ...

Combat Rifles. Really? Not a gun that looks like a combat rifle, but actual combat rifles? Where do I put my order in? I love that new British rifle and it'd be fun to go full "rock & roll" auto out in the back yard. What's that? I can't. Neither can the terrorists. They NYT is wrong and/or lying? Say it isn't so.
This drivel from the same people that have accused the administration of using the terrorist threat to unnecessarily scare people in order to support a hidden agenda. However, they're just reporting the facts, not trying to scare people to support a hidden agenda, right?

Hey, I got through the whole post without using a single curse word to describe the NYT representatives. I deserve praise.

1 comment:

Nylarthotep said...

Well, reading the Old Gray Corpse is pretty much like hitting your thumb with a hammer. I only go there to be irritated.

Love this Quote from most news articles about the letter sent to Gonzales on the topic:

"Sen. Frank Lautenberg , D-N.J., who requested the GAO study along with Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., on Tuesday sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking him why the Justice Department let people listed in the FBI's Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization File buy weapons."

Ummm. Could it possibly be because there hasn't been a law passed that allows the use of that list as a factor in the NICS check? Dolt!

Just a totally stupid reaction to a reasonable finding.

The NYT like most papers on the west coast went for the full knee jerk reaction.