We live in a time when, every single time a horrific crime is committed with a gun, the media rushes out to blame…well, all of the people who didn’t do it. But why? Of course, nobody’s talking–but I have a few ideas on the matter…
The Charitable Explanation
The charitable explanation is that it’s just human nature–everyone needs an outlet for anger and grief, and it used to be that mass shooters were rarely taken alive. So people had nobody to turn their anger on, and that’s why law-abiding gun owners and the organizations that represent us wound up catching the brunt of society’s rage when something like the Columbine massacre happened. But that charitable explanation doesn’t hold up when compared to other kinds of mass murder. After the Oklahoma City Bombing, were farmers and fuel-oil consumers blamed for the ANFO bombs McVeigh and Nichols used? When Alek Minassian drove a rental van into a crowd, killing 10, did the public clamor for van control? No, they did not.
So, I’ll save my charity for the Salvation Army.
The Cynical Explanation
The cynical explanation is that what the media needs is readers, and that readers are drawn in by violent content. “If it bleeds, it leads” is a mantra that’s even older than the contents of my sainted granny’s coffee-table candy dish. However, if you can’t have actual violence, controversy about that violence will do just fine. So once the event itself starts to recede from the public’s memory, the best way to keep people reading is to anger and upset as many of them as possible–preferably at each other. All you need do, as the journalist, is translate a specific (and horrific) event into a longer-running controversy. Because gun rights versus gun control is a long-standing debate in America, all the media has to do is throw out a few insults at NRA members in the wake of a shooting attack, and the controversy will flare for weeks or months…and everyone, pro and con, will be reading.
The Conspiratorial Explanation
Don’t worry, I’m not going to start frothing about the Illuminati, mostly because my application is still pending (fingers crossed!) and I don’t want to have to wait for the next Galactic Convergence to apply again. But golly, it’s almost as if the who’s-who of mainstream journalists have gotten together and collectively decided how they’re going to write their stories. It’s so weird how the quotes and calls to action from Everytown For Gun Safety are just ready to go right when those journalists are on deadline, any time of day or night, whenever there’s a mass shooting. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that the media crossed the line from reporting the news to trying to influence it a long time ago. And that if your aim was to try to overturn the Second Amendment, turning those of us who believe it into pariahs is a dandy way to start.
How about you, readers? Charity, cynicism, or conspiracy? Tell us in the comments!
Trace, a proud Special Farces who goes commando, is dedicated to pubic service. Although he’s a legend among YouTube commenters, he actually began life as a humble dingleberry farmer. Now, no subject is too moist or sensitive for his incisive odor and scintillating lymph nodes.
T. Dolan says
I know the media typically likes to jump on the ban firearms wagon, but I am having difficulty finding articles in which the people who didn’t commit the crime are being blamed. Could you point me to some good examples of stories covering crimes that blame concealed carry permit holders or open carry folks in the states that allow it, because this kind of injustice is exactly why folks can’t trust the media anymore. Thanks!
Tim Toroian says
I guess in the 50s knives caused crime. Or automobile radio antennas.
If you’re real young google “zip guns”.
William Shrewsberry says
You absolutely know the ridiculous and dangerous spouting off by mainstream media and their “anti-gun” allies is pure BS. If you need proof! Just take an honest look at those screaming the loudest to ban “assault “ weapons. Can someone tell me what that means anyway!!!! But back to my point, from crying Chuck Schumer to lunatic Pelosi to the talking heads in Hollywood and media. They ALL are surrounded by ARMED POLICE/BODYGUARDS. Mr. Heston said it best “ FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS “.
anonymous4goodreason says
Oddly, there is one more possibility that pro-rights people just can’t fathom. That is a genuine belief that if all guns are only in the hands of police and the military there will be no more “gun violence”, suicides will decrease dramatically, and we’ll all live happily ever after. I like to call this “Kumbaya Syndrome”. Pro-rights people are far too pragmatic understand how anyone could be that naïve.
Lee says
That once may have been true, but now they don’t want the police to be armed, either. The military? We’ll have to wait and see. Their personal bodyguard forces? Absolutely! After all, politicians and “celebrities” are more important than regular people… Just ask them; they’ll tell you!
The New Kumbaya Syndrome includes the fantastic belief that the bad guys will lay down their weapons when they realize nobody else is armed. (Cue the Looney Toons theme song.)
J Alfred Lemire says
The same people that said you do not needs guns because you have the Police. Are now the ones that want to defund the Police.
J. Houston says
Media-sociopaths are cynical AND conspiratorial. They will continue to try to convince us, they know better about what is “good” for us, than we ourselves.. In their sick opinion, we have neither the knowledge, intelligence or desire, to govern ourselves. They believe that if “lies”, are repeated often enough, they will be magically transformed into “truths”. Their primary, socialistic-objective is to control the US, and will use any and all “methods” to try to achieve that goal.
If you want to remain free to live your life, as you choose—-be armed and be ready—-for at the end of the day, the only thing a sociopath respects is “power”.
Mathew D Dance says
Conspiracy. They can’t get the one world government set up in America as long as we are armed and defend and believe in our freedoms.
Rivahmitch says
Exactly. Further, the globalists/Democommies cannot safely obliterate all of the Bill of Rights until they eliminate the 2nd Amendment. History shows that people will retain only the rights and freedoms for which they are willing to kill and die. Removing the tools which allow them to resist tyranny makes tyranny a far more probable future. Slavery to the state (whether technically labelled communism, socialism or fascism) is no more palatable to any free individual than slavery to an individual.