ABC pushes anti-gun agenda
Cleveland Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 8 April, 2009 | Daniel White

 

We talk a lot about media bias, but sometimes the mainstream media goes so far beyond what should be acceptable fair and balanced reporting as to call into question their integrity.

On Friday night, ABC's World News dedicated a segment to complaining about what they see as a lack of government interest in enacting more stringent gun control laws as a means of combating violence. Said substitute host Diane Sawyer, "we keep hearing there is a gun for every man, woman and child in this country, and now they have gone up by that much more. But what about Congress? Is there any move in Congress to try to take some kind of action?"

Exactly what kind of action would she like to see? Like every other gun banner, she apparently sees the solution to gun crimes as taking guns away from the people who didn't commit the crime in the first place.

ABC didn't stop there. Yesterday morning on "Good Morning America," reporter David Muir continued the agenda-based "reporting" by proffering Michael Wolkowitz, a board member of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, as an expert on firearms without bothering to mention that he was basing his whole argument on propaganda.

In neither segment did ABC present the opposing viewpoint, choosing instead to promote their own biased agenda, including promoting yet another anti-gun piece they are planning to air this Friday entitled, "If I Only Had a Gun," which Sawyer noted included a segment highlighting that "since there is an impulse to think if I had a gun I could protect myself and others, we have an experience we'll conduct based on a real incident in which we show you what happens." I'm sure that reenactment will be completely unbiased and realistic, right?

Meanwhile, today is the 5 year anniversary of Ohio's concealed handgun license law. Northern Ohio's The News Herald ran an article covering this milestone and noted that Ohio sheriffs consider the program a success.

"Statistics have shown that in Ohio and across the United States, CCW laws have resulted in a reduction of violent crimes. They've given law-abiding private citizens a tool for protecting themselves," said Ralph Spidalieri, a Geauga County deputy sheriff and owner of Great Lakes Outdoor Supply, a retail outlet for guns and ammunition with stores in Chester Township and Middlefield.

"Originally, I was not a proponent," Lake County Sheriff Daniel A. Dunlap said. "With more people carrying weapons, I worried there would be a greater possibility of bad outcomes in dealings between law-enforcement officers and private citizens. I've been wrong more than once in my 38-year career. We haven't experienced any difficulties with concealed-carry beyond it creating a lot more work for our office."

Toby Hoover, Executive Director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence continues to oppose the law, and apparently has a selective memory.

"We never predicted bloodshed during all the years we fought against passage of this law."

Really? What about this 2001 article in the Cincinnati Enquirer that contained the following quotes from her organization?

John Shanks, Coalition: We believe immediate access and availability enhances chances for firearms violence. A case in point is two ladies in a recent road-rage incident. One of them reached in her glove box and pulled out a gun and shot the other one. When you introduce firearms, a situation that would not normally result in deadly violence can be tragic.

John Shanks, Coalition: Suppose some guy on a Sunday afternoon is consuming alcohol at the ballpark and it's 102 degrees. Tempers flare and that leads to tragic violence if he has a gun.

Toby Hoover, Coalition: We are looking to prevent accidents, homicides and suicides. When you increase access to something, you increase the things that can happen.

Hoover may not want to recall her organization's fear mongering since none of it came to pass, but that doesn't change the fact that it happened. Concealed Carry works in Ohio, it works across the nation, and it isn't the good guys who are committing these violent crimes. No amount of bias is going to change those facts.