Readers' lock-n-load response

[JohnLocke]

Lock-n-load responses from Readers*
by Paul Vitello -- Newsday
Tuesday March 9, 2004

Are you lonely? Do you crave attention from passionate and devoted respondents? Would you like to receive letters, e-mails and phone calls by the hundreds, so many that you pine for that lonely old life you used to know?
Well, here's the answer: Write something favorable about gun control. Lament how easy it still is to buy semi-automatic assault weapons such as the one used in the Washington, D.C., sniper case by John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo. Get your hand-wringing piece published in the newspaper.
For good measure, throw in some improper gun terminology - get your AR-15s mixed up with your AK-47s - just to show how little time you have spent in your life killing little leaf-eating mammals. Then, feel the heat as gun enthusiasts from all over the country devote their passionate attention to your once-lonesome self.
"If I hit someone in the head with a hammer, who's fault is it, mine or the hammer's?" wrote one such enthusiast, responding to a column I wrote last week about efforts in Congress to end existing restrictions on the sale and manufacture of assault weapons. The NRA has made ending the assault ban one of its top priorities.
(...)
The letters and e-mails were angry and contemptuous and, I regret to say, too well-written for my taste. All pointed out some errors of fact by me:
(...)
Here is the rest of the story, as best I can tell. A federal law was adopted in 1998 requiring a background check for anyone purchasing a handgun or long gun. If you go to a gun store to buy a gun, after asking for your money and your license, they will run your name through the FBI's National Crime Information Center, or NCIC system.known as NCIS.
(...)
I heard them. They have their case to make, and they made it.
I do not know why there are any objections, though, to laws protecting citizens from nuts and criminals - and terrorists - who want to buy assault rifles at any sporting goods store in America.

* I modified the sentence structure to avoid the apostrophe error.

[MrBenchley]

1. Another great column...

"The gun lobby is intensely well-organized to fight every single one of these laws, however, and to make each one as ineffective as possible.
That includes deluging with complaints and letters people who argue in any way against their culture of weapons."

You might recall the enthusiasts here started THREE different threads about it...no doubt demonstrating their "freedom" by spouting all three of the talking ponits Vitello mentions.

Jeeze, Mao's Red Guard wasn't as doctrinaire and lockstep as the RKBA crowd.

[slackmaster]

2. We may be doctrinaire and acting in lockstep sometimes

But at least we have our facts straight.

A good journalist would have actually purchased an "assault weapon" or at least followed someone through the whole process before trying to document it.

[jimsteuben]

3. Vitello: another swing and a miss

In the follow-up article, Vitello writes:
The Bushmaster XM-15 assault rifle, used by Muhammad and Malvo to kill 10 people in the Washington, D.C., area in 2002, is not a civilian version of the AK-47 rifle, as I stated, but a semi-automatic version of the automatic AR-15 rifle used by the U.S. military. Excuse me.

Wrong again, Mr. Vitello. The XM-15 is a semi-automatic version of the M-16 automatic rifle used by the U.S. military. The AR-15 is not an automatic rifle!

I do not know why there are any objections, though, to laws protecting citizens from nuts and criminals - and terrorists - who want to buy assault rifles at any sporting goods store in America.

Wrong again. "Assault rifles" are by definition machine guns. They are not available "at any sporting goods store in America."

[slackmaster]

4. Time for another flood of letters, emails, and phone calls

:evilgrin:

[MrBenchley]

5. He answered that, Jim.....

"throw in some improper gun terminology - get your AR-15s mixed up with your AK-47s - just to show how little time you have spent in your life killing little leaf-eating mammals."

[slackmaster]

6. Willful ingorance is a sin

Especially when you brag about it in print.

[-..__...]

9. Pssssst, note to Mr. Vitello.

"Two cases in point: John Allen Muhammad was able to buy his Bushmaster...

Really, now?

I should think that a <cough>journalist</cough>, would at least have the integrity, intelligence and credibility to get the facts straight in a follow-up article.

Perhaps Mr. Vitello should try reading the news first before he writes for it?

[MrBenchley]

13. Too TOO funny...

The Bullseye Gun shop didn't try to claim the gun was stolen until AFTER it had been traced to them....

But then some people will buy ANY absurdity the gun lobby ladles out to them...

[-..__...]

You're leaving out one little detail.

Malvo (not Muhammed), admitted to stealing (not buying), the Bushmaster.

Bullseyes claim was made well over a year ago. Malvos admission was made months ago. Mr. Vitellos allegation, was made today. Plenty of time in that period to do a little fact checking, but I guess that's only necessary if the facts are important.

[MrBenchley]

19. Hahahahaha....

"Bullseyes claim was made well over a year ago."
But only after the gun was traced back to those scumbags. Tell me, do you think Malvo stuck it down his pants leg and waltzed out of the shop? Maybe he folded it up and put it in a pocket.

"Plenty of time in that period to do a little fact checking"
And even more time for everyone in the country to hear more lies and horseshit from the gun lobby.

[-..__...]

25. Tell me?

What does your ranting about Bullseye have to do with Vitellos erroneous reporting? At least you agree that the gun was stolen and not bought as Vitello tells it. The distinction makes a big difference when the author
is misstating evidence to support his criticism of the NICS background check system.

Honestly though, I'm not surprised by the article; dishonesty, distortion and deception has long been the trademark of the anti-gun movement.

[MrBenchley]

30. Sure.....

I don't think anybody but the really desperate are dumb enough to believe the gun was really stolen.

[slackmaster]

33. There's another side to that coin

I don't think anybody but the really paranoid are crazy enough to believe that it was not stolen.

[-..__...]

34. Thanks for straightening that out.

I guess I'll ignore the rumors then.

Next thing you'll be telling us is that the owners of Bullseye also gift wrapped the Bushmaster and carried it out to M&M's vehicle for them.

[-..__...]

11. You're right...

he did answer that. I belive his response was "Excuse me".

Sounds like he can't accept having his mistakes corrected without having too resort to such a childish and unprofessional excuse.

[MrBenchley]

14. Sounds more like he doesn't much care for gun porn

or get a chubby over weapon specifications...like most people.

[FatSlob]

17. Also wrong.

The AK and AR are quite unsuited to hunting deer.

[MrBenchley]

20. Yeah, but they're swell for shooting other people

like so many nutcases and criminals dream of doing...

[slackmaster]

23. I just got my PhD in Remote Internet Psychiatric Diagnosis

You shall from this point forward refer to me as Dr. Slackmaster, PhD.

[FatSlob]

24. I have two.

Am I a nutcase or a criminal? My your brush is broad.

[-..__...]

15. Does this guy have any valid credentials?

"Here is the rest of the story, as best I can tell.

IOW, he's not sure, but he'll report on it anyhow.

[jimsteuben]

26. time for some sensible journalism control

License journalists, register typewriters and printers, thorough background checks for those wishing to get an internet hook-up, 5-day waiting period before newspapers can publish editorials.

After all, we don't want just any nut, criminal, terrorist, pedophile, or Nazi to just say or write or post any damn thing he wants, right?

[Stoker]

7. You betcha, bucko...

"The gun lobby is intensely well-organized to fight every single one of these laws, however, and to make each one as ineffective as possible.
That includes deluging with complaints and letters people who argue in any way against their culture of weapons."

And we will continue to do so. Every day people like you fight to destroy our liberties and means to preserve them, people like us will continue doing the above.

Jeeze, Mao's Red Guard wasn't as doctrinaire and lockstep as the RKBA crowd.

And never forget it, either. I will never relinquish my right to bear arms, nor the arms that have passed down for generations in my family.

Stoker

[MrBenchley]

8. Too TOO funny....

"people like us"
And what a proud bunch that is, too: pResident turd, Jebbo, Tom DeLay, John AshKKKroft, Ted Nugent, David Duke, Larry Pratt, Trent Lott, Larry Craig, Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Jerry Falwell, Roy Moore, Sean Hannity, Mary Rosh, Sun Myung Moon...

[slackmaster]

10. Argumentum ad hominem

Guilt by association.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jtb33]

27. You forgot to add these to your list:

Theodore Roosevelt, Mohandas Gandhi, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, and the Dalai Lama.

[CO Liberal]

29. All Right, JBT

Show whatever evidence you have that Gandhi, Jefferson, or the Dalai Lama ever belonged to the Nuts Ruining America (NRA).

[MrBenchley]

31. TOO frigging funny....

Still trying to pass off Gandhi and the Dalai Lama as gun advocates...could the RKBA argument get ANY lamer?

By the way, what happened to that John F. Kennedy guy? Oh yeah, some asswipe with a gun shot him.

[FatSlob]

16. Yeah, but Mao was Authoritarian

and fought against freedom, similar to Mr. Vitello and the rest of the gun-banning crowd.

[MrBenchley]

18. And the RKBA crowd is just as doctrinaire

following such "freedom fighters" as Larry Pratt and Wayne LaPierre.....

[FatSlob]

22. They fight for an individual liberty.

Unlike the authoritarian crowd who wants all power in the hands of the government.

[MrBenchley]

32. They're right wing humholes, fat slob

and the bigoted scum of the earth. Nice playmates you've got.

[slackmaster]

21. Help me here - I don't understand objections to using correct terminology

Why does anyone have a problem with people insisting that technically accurate terminology be used? It's not nit-picking to point out inaccurate language when that inaccuracy has a material effect on meaning, as it most certainly does in gun-related discussions.

How many times have we had someone come into these forums ranting and raving about the evils of "assault weapons" only to be exposed as not understanding that they are semiautomatic as opposed to fully automatic?

Even more bizarre from my perspective is giving Paul Vitello a pass for omitting from his original essay the fact that a background check is conducted on all gun buyers. The fact that there IS a check seems to negate much of the point he was originally trying to make - That in his opinion it's too easy to buy a scary-looking firearm.

[JohnLocke]

28. I don't have any objections.

If you're going to expound on firearm-related issues (any issues at all, for that matter), you should know what you're talking about. Part of that is the proper terminology.

[Wickerman]

35. Speaking of locking

that is what has happened to this load. We've hashed most of this ground, and what we haven't ain't getting done (with all the personal attacks) anyway.

Say Goodnight, Paul!

:hi: