The Associated Press has a well-deserved rep for being anti-gun rights, spreading their disdain to the news orgs who republish its work throughout the United States (e.g., ABC). In the run-up to the presidential election, the AP shows its lack of journalistic integrity with its article WHY IT MATTERS: Guns. Here’s their take on the “debate” over gun rights:
THE ISSUE: The right to bear arms is fundamental to the U.S., carved into the Constitution and seemingly embedded in the national DNA. But after a seemingly endless stretch of violence, Americans are confronting how far those rights extend, propelling gun issues to the forefront of this year’s elections.
Catch all that? The right to bear arms (what happened to “keep and”?) is “seemingly embedded” in the national DNA. Not embedded. Seemingly embedded. And speaking of unseemly bias, what about the term “seemingly endless stretch of violence”? What does that mean — save the usual anti-gun “feelz” about “growing gun violence”?
Do Americans have the right to have AR-style firearms, the long guns with a military look used in the past year in several mass shootings? Should they be able to buy magazines that hold 10 or more bullets? Can those on a terrorist watchlist, but not charged with a crime, be allowed to buy a gun? Should every gun buyer have to pass a background check?
At least AP writer Lisa Marie Pane (by name and by nature) didn’t use the term “assault weapons.” Her anti-gun rights bias is inherent in the phrase “allowed to buy a gun.” As if Americans only have a right to keep and bear arms if the government “allows” it.
And how about this for cherry-picking?
A recent AP-GfK Poll found the highest levels of support for restrictions on guns since the question was first asked in 2013. That’s a sharp departure from the past two presidential election years, when gun issues were largely absent from the campaigns.
That would be the same Joyce Foundation opt-in poll (actually a survey) thoroughly debunked and discredited by TTAG and anyone else familiar with duff data (GIGO) and statistical manipulation. And here’s the kicker:
In a world that feels increasingly violent, whether at home or across the globe, America’s cowboy culture and the Second Amendment are under the microscope. Voters are asking what will make them safer, more guns or fewer?
“Feels” again. And what’s that about America’s “cowboy culture” if not a diss against American gun owners? More proof that the mainstream media is in the tank for gun control, however subtle they try to be.