“The shootings in Louisiana now have several groups calling for gun control measures that are more strict in Colorado and across the country,” Fox 31 “reported” in a thinly-disguised promotional piece for Michael Bloomberg’s interests that ignored the real story. “Tonight, Lafayette Louisiana joins the long and growing list of cities like Charleston, Aurora and Littleton to become national symbols of gun violence,” propagandist-disguised-as-newsman Mark Meredith solemnly intoned. “Today, on Denver’s 16th Street Mall, a handful of women with the group Moms Demand Action, hit the streets near a movie theater, hoping movie-goers will hear their call for action.” . . .
“We need to feel safe, in our churches, and out movie theaters, in our schools, we need to not be ducking from gunfire,” spokesMILM Jennifer Hope wished for hopefully, neglecting to mention the examples she was citing were all already “gun-free zones” in most places. That there’s a huge difference between feeling safe and being safe goes without saying, at least on Fox 31.
“The group hopes other states will adopt gun laws similar to those which have passed in Colorado,” Meredith elaborated, neglecting to mention the politicians who have lost their seats as a result, along with a growing “I will not comply” movement. He also didn’t mention Bloomberg’s money that finances such Astroturf efforts throughout the states as a strong-arm substitute for grassroots support.
By way of a “fair and balanced” alternative view, Meredith turned not to a spokesman for any gun rights group who might offer substantive counterpoints and added perspective, but rather, to a call for prayer. A sound bite then played of a Louisiana Democrat calling for “a serious conversation” about disarming Americans using a mental health justification, leaving inconvenient due process considerations unmentioned.
The real story, such as one exists, is that a non-event centered around – how many were there, three? – women demanding “gun control” was all the support the Bloomberg Moms could muster in a major metropolitan area following a series of highly-publicized acts of criminal violence. The other story is that a major local television “news” organization sent a crew out to give free publicity to Bloomberg’s machine, presenting just one side of the issue, and the wrong side at that. None of which, when you think about it, is really news to informed gun owners, who see this sort of media manipulation all the time.