When An Uncritical Media Pushing Moms Demand Action Lies :: 03/10/2020

What a name. Mostly, everyone just calls the Moms Demand Action. They’re one of the more vocal anti-gun groups out there. Backed by Michael Bloomberg’s money, they continue to infest federal and state elections with annoying frequency.

Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense In America.

All of that, however, is their right. This is the United States of America, after all. People have a right to be wrong about issues.

However, there’s nothing that annoys me more than when a group backed by a billionaire also gets help from a complicit media, like this first sentence in this article here.

While Moms Demand Action “absolutely respects” the Second Amendment, it’s pushing for what it says are common sense gun regulations, including what the organization said would fix a loophole that bypasses background checks.

Scott Randolph, the state legislative lead for the organization, spoke to Jefferson City Area Indivisible at its monthly meeting Sunday at the Missouri River Regional Library.

Despite putting “absolutely respects” in quotation marks, the first sentence has not a hint of neutrality. The entire sentence reads as if it is absolute, undisputed fact.

It’s not.

Take the rest of Randolph’s talk, for example:

Since 2008, gun deaths in Missouri have increased 55 percent, which corresponds with the Missouri Legislature making guns more accessible, he said. In 2007-08, he said, the requirement to register firearms was dropped, along with the requirement to have a background check for every gun.

As of 2018, Missouri has the third highest rate of gun deaths, he said.

The Legislature in 2016 dropped the requirement to obtain a license — which requires training — to conceal carry.

Also, if individuals buy guns from other people or at gun shows, rather than at stores, they no longer have to get background checks, he said.

Moms Demand Action wants to change that, he said. They’re working to “close the deadly loopholes in our background check system that allow dangerous people — like felons and domestic abusers — easy access to guns.”

It should be noted, however, that the changes to Missouri’s laws aren’t unique. Those exact same laws exist in other states, all without a corresponding increase in violent crime, including the nebulous “gun deaths” statistic that also includes suicides. Regardless, Randolph spoke about reversing all of Missouri’s progress on gun rights.

Yet you know what Moms Demand Action never does? It never backs a pro-gun measure. It never draws a line where there’s too much gun control.

Their “respect” for gun control is nothing more than lip service and we all know it. They say they respect the Second Amendment but then, with every ounce of effort they expend, they seek to whittle it away into nothing.

The worst part to me, though it’s not surprising, is how a news publication–both editors and the reporter are complicit in this–looked and Randolph’s vague claims about respecting the Second Amendment uncritically and published them in such a way. They know that many people only read the first few paragraphs of a story. They’ll read that first line and take it as gospel truth.

It’s journalistic malpractice on top of being a pile of male bovine excrement.

Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/

https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2020/03/10/uncritical-media-lies/