Shocking, I know. A mainstream media news organization “investigates” Chicago’s “gun violence” and focuses on firearms (video below). During the course of her “investigation,” CBS’s suitably ethnic reporter asks a drive-by of gang bangers an important question: why are you guys packing heat? And got the answer above: protection.
News flash! Chicago gang bangers use guns to protect themselves against rival gang bangers. Not to mention the fact that they use guns for their “work”: robbery, extortion, prostitution and drug sales. Literally. CBS’s ace reporter Adriana Diaz doesn’t mention the fact that gang bangers use firearms to commit crime.
Truth not be told, Ms. Diaz’ story portrays armed thugs as reluctant gunslingers, firearms-averse folks who tool-up purely out of defensive necessity. “They actually told us they hate guns,” Ms. Diaz asserts. Her evidence: a gang member who says he’s only packing heat until he can move his family into a higher tax bracket.
Armed gang members as victims? That’s hardly a new idea amongst the left-leaning mainstream media, which likes to portray everyone as a victim of something. (Except for the stories where someone overcomes the odds to transition from victim to survivor.)
It’s the Oprahization of news: information workers pimping emotion above rational analysis, appealing to a highly uneducated audience. Soothing them with a simple message: whatever’s wrong in your life, it’s not your fault.
Guns don’t cause “gun violence” — any more than knives cause “knife violence.” Gun control laws don’t stop bad guys — yes bad guys — from getting gats. Two pieces of data that don’t compute if you’re a media maven selling victimology to the masses.
And yet the NRA’s “Refuse to Be A Victim” classes have never been so popular. Go figure.