Thanks Ron...I hadn't read him before...Here's what he has to say about guns ...and facts and accuracy. I liked both the article you posted and this too....knew he had to be a local boy....Ballard was a giveaway....
Facts left out
By Larry Simoneaux
I’m going to spend the next few hundred words or so talking about guns.
Well, partly about guns, but also about facts and accuracy.
About a week or two ago, I read a story concerning yet another deranged moron who'd gone on a rampage with a gun.
Mr. Peter Odighizuwa had recently flunked out of the Appalachian Law School for a second time. Apparently disturbed by the fact that he couldn’t hack it at the school, and that there was no support group nearby to hold his hand and tell him “it wasn’t his fault” and that he was actually suffering from "NATPHFAD" (Not Able To Pass His Finals
Affective Disorder) which lowered his self-esteem to no end and which, (I'll end this sentence soon, promise) if he’d waited might have even got him a weepy-eyed spot on Oprah – instead, he shot and killed three people and injured three others at the school.
The attack ended, according to the story I read, when several students brought him down and subdued him. In other stories around the country, it was reported that “students overpowered a gunman,” students “helped subdue” the killer, “the gunman was tackled by four male students before being arrested,” or “students ended the rampage by confronting and then tackling the gunman, who dropped his weapon.”
After reading the local account, I remember thinking, “These guys deserve a medal for taking on this armed wacko.”
Now, what was missing in more than 200 news stories regarding this incident – including the one I read?
Well, as Paul Harvey would say, “Here’s the rest of the story.”
Two students, Mikael Gross and Tracy Bridges, helped subdue Mr. Odighizuwa. When the shooting started, both men ran to their cars and got their guns.
Then, along with another student, Ted Besen, they approached the gunman. Mr. Bridges took aim. Seeing this, Mr. Odighizuwa tossed down his gun.
The students then overpowered him, preventing further carnage – all without firing a shot of their own.
I’ve been around guns all my life. I use them to hunt and for target shooting. I’m a certified safety instructor. My three kids have been raised with guns stored safely in the house.
If, as some would have you believe, guns kill people, they’d have been pulling bodies from my home for years and my neighbors would likely have dropped like flies. That guns are actually not responsible for killing also seems to be borne out by the niggling little fact that we still tend to arrest the shooter whenever there’s a gun-related killing. That’s as it should be.
What isn’t as it should be, however, are stories that are subtly slanted by having pertinent facts left out.
Generally, such a slant is not in support of gun ownership.
According to the New York Post, “out of 280 separate news stories in the week after the event, just four stories mentioned that the students who stopped the attack had guns.”
Sorry folks, but when stuff like that happens it’s called bias.
And bias in reporting isn't good.
If a reporter doesn’t like guns, fine, have him or her write an op-ed piece.
But when covering an incident involving guns, said incident should be reported fairly, factually, and in its entirety.
When bias creeps in - for whatever reason and on whatever topic - then what’s being reported is no longer the truth. It’s misinformation. And misinformation isn't so good either.
I know that many people hate guns and think gun owners are armed Cro-Magnons. Fine again. We can all sit down and have a healthy debate on this since I know that the vast majority of gun owners are extremely responsible and intelligent people who have a deep regard for safety. I also happen to know that gun owners also respect truth and honesty. Unfortunately, they’ve been repeatedly shown that truth and honesty don’t always make it to the pages of many newspapers in any story regarding guns.
Ever heard about the research that shows there are 2 million defensive gun uses in the United States each year? Ever heard about the direction crime statistics have taken in Britain and Australia since their draconian gun laws have taken effect? Ever heard that in other school shootings where citizens with guns have stopped the bloodshed, only a very small percentage of the news stories mention that fact?
So, here’s a proposal.
Whenever a citizen uses a gun to protect his or her property or to stop a murder, a mugging, a rape or a robbery, let’s report it honestly and completely.
Then, let’s allow everyone the opportunity to draw their own conclusions as to the whether or not gun ownership is a bad thing.
Of course, if reporting a story honestly, completely, and without bias is no longer required – regardless of the topic – in journalism, then we’re facing a lot more danger than guns will ever pose. |
