Time for sensible background checks
Published 11:34 pm Thursday, October 8, 2015
In the wake of the recent homicidal shooting rampage at an Oregon community college, I’m forced to come to the conclusion that it is high time for common sense national background checks for journalists.
It’s time we closed the political loophole and prevented biased, ignorant political operatives from getting their hands on a dangerously misleading national microphone.
RedState has a perfect example this week. Former Bill Clinton White House aide, and current Clinton Foundation donor George Stephanopoulos, is the host for ABC’s This Week. He uses his “bully pulpit” to bully conservatives and Republicans.
During an interview with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Stephanopoulos interrupted Christie to assert, “But there’s no question the pace of mass shootings is accelerating, happening more frequently than anywhere else. If it’s not the gun, then what is it?”
This is a perfect example of leftist thinking. As Dennis Prager points out, the left always blames the inanimate object and never the user.
During the Cold War the left wanted to ban atomic weapons rather than condemn and work to overthrow totalitarian regimes that could use The Bomb to further their ends. Leftist—in—Chief Obama continues to be fixated on nuclear weapons and behind the scenes is working to render our nuclear deterrent impotent.
Now the left is fixated on the gun. Blaming the user of the gun is out of the question, because that involves individual responsibility.
Once America starts thinking in terms of individual responsibility again, it has the potential to open up a line of questioning that is very uncomfortable for big government leftists.
For example: Why can’t you find a job? Where is the father of your children? How did your home enter foreclosure? What do you spend your money on? Why have we lost the War on Poverty?
After demonizing the gun, leftists like Stephanopoulos use false data from anti—gun pressure groups to contradict defenders of the 2nd Amendment.
First they change the definition of “mass shooting.” Before the numbers started to trend against them, the definition was at least four deaths NOT counting the shooter. Now gun grabbers use three deaths as a minimum or they include the wretched shooter in the total.
Naturally, as if by magic in a cloud of cordite, there are more mass shootings, but even doctored statistics can’t support the “accelerating” claim.
The RedState graph shows mass shootings peaked in 2004 and have not reached that peak since. Since 2008, mass shootings have been trending downward.
I’m certain rabid Democrat defenders of media bias will block my common sense background checks for journalists bill in the Senate. So in the meantime I can only advise you to beware leftists bearing statistics.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution”.