Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

MEMBER & GUEST INTERACTION SECTION => THE 2ND AMENDMENT => Topic started by: Michael Bush on July 26, 2016, 12:09:44 pm

Title: Fallacies the media keeps presenting as facts.
Post by: Michael Bush on July 26, 2016, 12:09:44 pm
I'm constantly frustrated by what the media keeps presenting as facts on gun control.  One of their new ones is referring to "open carry laws".  There are no open carry laws.  There are just very few states that have a law AGAINST open carry.  You are allowed to open carry in those states for the same reason you are allowed to wear a baseball cap and walk down the street.  Because it's a free country and there is no law against it.  When the Police union in Ohio calls for the Governor to suspend open carry laws, they show a total ignorance of the law as well as the constitution of the US, the constitution of Ohio and our ancestor's understanding of the "rule of law".  If the executive branch can make a law (which would be what the governor would have to do to outlaw open carry) then he has made himself the legislature.  If the governor can suspend a law, (which he would have to do to suspend concealed carry) then he has usurped the legislature.  So first, there are no open carry laws for him to suspend, and second, the governor does not have that authority if there were a law to suspend.  To suspend laws (any laws) the governor would have to declare martial law and call out the National Guard.

Another one is that the news media keeps saying that AR15s used to be banned.  There was never a time when they were banned.  The "so called" assault weapon ban never banned anything.  You could buy any and all of the "assault weapons" during the "ban" that you could buy before or after the "ban".  The cost went up a little on some of them because a "preban" gun and a "postban" gun had different rules.  You could buy a preban gun and then buy a large capacity magazine (which were not banned either, but they couldn't make or import them, you could still buy them at a slightly elevated price) and you could put that large capacity magazin on your "preban" gun and you were legal.  If you already had a large capacity magazine on a preban gun, you were also legal.  The high capacity magazines were still available, they were just more expensive.  You could also buy a "postban" gun that was manufactured after the ban.  You could still buy a large capacity magazine.  But if you put the large capacity magazine in the postban gun you would be in violation of the law.  I'm sure that stops criminals... ;)  Also you could buy a folding stock that wouldn't fold until you removed a screw.  Removing that screw if it was on a postban gun would be illegal.  Removing it if you had it on a preban gun was legal.  Anyone could buy the gun.  Anyone could buy the stock.  But only if it was preban would it be LEGAL if you removed the screw that allowed it to fold.  So what exactly did the "assualt weapon ban" ban?  Import and manufacture of certain things like high capacity magazines.  But not the possession or sale of anything.  In other words, nothing was really banned.  The only way congress ever got the "ban" passed was that it didn't ban anything and it had a built in expiration date.  In spite of that no one who voted for it got reelected.

Another, of course, is the media constantly saying there is this epidemic of "gun violence" when in actuality violent crime is at the lowest level since the 1960s and still dropping.  They seem to think if they say it often enough it will become true.  Also the idea that guns cause violence and that they are the only "efficient" way to kill a lot of people.  Yesterday a Japanese man killed 19 and wounded 20 people with a knife... and last Thursday in Nice, France 80 people were killed and 18 were seriously injured by a guy running over them with a truck.  Maybe we should try to go after those sick people instead of guns...?  That or we need to outlaw trucks and knives...

Another myth they sell is that the NRA is some kind of PAC funded by the gun industry.  The NRA has clout because they represent voters.  Those voters have made sure that any presidential candidate up to now who advocated gun control has not gotten elected.  That was done by the VOTERS who the NRA represents.  Not by the NRA.  The same with all of those senators and congressmen who voted for the "assault weapon ban".  Their constituents voted them out.  Not the NRA.  When voters get together as a group it is quite different than when an industry gets together as a group.  If you want to know who controls congress look at the top 20 or so donors to the political campaigns and the top 20 PACs and you'll find the pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies etc. well represented a long with the Ag chemical companies.  The NRA is not in the top 20.  Their clout doesn't come from money and donations, it comes from voters.
Title: Re: Fallacies the media keeps presenting as facts.
Post by: iddee on July 26, 2016, 12:44:48 pm
AMEN!!
Title: Re: Fallacies the media keeps presenting as facts.
Post by: BeeMaster2 on July 26, 2016, 12:49:38 pm
Good points Michael.
Lawyers are also a major source for political campaigns.
Title: Re: Fallacies the media keeps presenting as facts.
Post by: KG7IL on July 26, 2016, 01:16:20 pm
These fallacies continue to exist, because the people that should be reading this aren't.
Many people don't care and get their misinformation from the nightly news. 
No one vets the stories.  The news is always filled with fallacies...It is their domain!
Title: Re: Fallacies the media keeps presenting as facts.
Post by: Michael Bush on July 26, 2016, 01:35:14 pm
Another frustrating one is acting like it's only common sense not to sell guns to people on the "no fly list".  A list that is arbitrarily made up (no one seems to know exactly how you even end up on it) and which has no right of appeal or due process attached to it.  You want to deprive people of one of the rights in the Bill of Rights with no due process and no right of appeal... and these people who purport this pretend to be "Americans"...  I'm certainly not in favor of selling guns to terrorists, but you should have some kind of due process before you can deprive someone of their rights.  It's bad enough these people are deprived of the privilege of flying to their destination with no due process and no right of appeal...
Title: Re: Fallacies the media keeps presenting as facts.
Post by: GSF on July 28, 2016, 04:24:58 pm
Good post Michael. I remember reading a story not long after the no fly list came out. This poor guy went on vacation in Hawaii. When he got ready to leave they wouldn't let him on the plane. I forgot how the story ended but I remember it costing him a butload of money. A cruise ship maybe?