Posted on 01/03/2012 7:17:41 AM PST by marktwain
Associated Press reported that on Sunday, a Mount Rainier National Park ranger was murdered by a man whom authorities suspect had earlier shot four people at a house party near Seattle.
The storys fairly well written until the conclusion, which is where writers place the message they want readers to take with. After writing about how sad this situation is and it is AP wrote:
It has been legal for people to take loaded firearms into Mount Rainier since 2010, when a federal law went into effect that made possession of firearms in national parks subject to state gun laws.
Gun banners 101: Work up the emotions and insert the anti-gun message to get people motivated to do something.
As if somebody committing murder a capital crime resulting in death or a life sentence cares about a niggling misdemeanor or low-level felony like a gun ban?
Tacoma News Tribune mirrored the AP message in their lede, except when they interviewed George Coulbourn, a park volunteer whos against guns in parks, who admitted:
If guns had been prohibited at the park, it doesnt sound like that would have any effect on this. This is murder.
I dont think that has any bearing on this. When you have someone who would spontaneously kill someone, a prohibition of guns in the park wouldnt stop someone like that.
Regarding park carry, Coulburn also said: If youre not comfortable visiting the park because of animals, you dont belong there.
Curiously, News Tribune ran a story a few weeks back where a woman died in an animal attack, possibly a wolf attack.
Grades: News Tribune, C; AP, F.
Theres a world of difference between gun nut paranoia and reality. Media fails in its duty by creating news instead of reporting it.
(Brady misreports, too.)
Let's see, what was the penalty for bringing in a gun before 2010 compared to the current penalty for murder?
This is the same rationale that would state that increasing the speed limit from 15 to 20 mph led to a person driving into a playground and running down a kindergarten class...
Not to mention that there were plenty of armed robberies, rapes, and murders in the national parks before 2010.
Gee if only it had been illegal to take a gun into the park, surely this insane mass murderer would not have done so thus preventing the murder of the Park Ranger.........
And we like unicorns also...............
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