More Media Anti-Gun Bias – ABC “News” story conceals the facts on “concealed-carry” in restaurants

by Captain Arapahoe | 5:56 pm, August 24, 2009 | Comments Off

Coincidentally (?) airing on the same date as the infamous MSNBC “Racists with Guns” story – a broadcast which intentionally used video showing a man with a (legally carried) gun at a rally against government takeover of healthcare to bolster false accusations of racism and “hate” speech among protesters (unfortunately for MSNBC, an unedited version of that video showed that the man was black) - ABC News with Charles Gibson also broadcast a story deliberately distorting the facts on recent changes to concealed-carry laws in several states.

The “news” piece – provocatively titled “Bringing Your Own ‘Shots’ to the Bar” – (my, aren’t they witty and OH SO clever!?!)  reports on recent changes to the concealed-carry law in Tennessee (as well as briefly mentioning a similar change to the law in Arizona).  Tennessee (and Arizona) recently amended the law covering concealed-carry permits to allow permit-holders – who BTW have undergone extensive background checks and proficiency training – to legally carry weapons in restaurants and other establishments, including those in which alcohol is served.

Reporter Charles Gibson (yes, he of the condescending, stentorian tones) is aghast and shocked (shocked!) that guns could be allowed in restaurants – and in such close proximity to (gasp!) alcohol!  “Would you want your children (yes, it’s always about the children, isn’t it?) to eat next to someone carrying a gun?”, the promo piece alarmingly cautions.  A bar owner featured on-screen “worries that bar fights will turn into gun fights.”  To hear ABC News tell the tale, a return to Dodge City saloon shoot-em-ups is just around the corner.

Except…  what the story intentionally leaves out is the fact that concealed-carry permit-holders, although allowed to actually BE in establishments serving alcohol, are NOT allowed to actually partake of the demon rum themselves.  All of the hype about “mixing alcohol and guns” is a falsehood; the law change does NOT allow concealed-carry permit holders to get soused while packing heat.  This intentional Lie of Omission is contrary to journalistic ethics – at least before that term became an oxymoron.

Colorado passed an almost identical law several years ago; then, as now, opponents of the law predicted drunken rampages by permit-holders, a veritable plethora of “gunnies gone wild” with blood running in the streets (well, along the drip trays, anyway).  Remember reading about all of those bar fights escalating into shootouts in the news, or seeing the stories on TV, over the last five years in Colorado?  No?  Of course not – because they didn’t happen.

What also hasn’t happened in Colorado – or in Texas, once they passed a similar change to the law - is any mass shooting in restaurants.  In fact, the ONLY mass shootings that happen seem to occur exclusively in “gun-free” zones – schools, churches, and offices.  Probably the safest possible mass-gathering of people?  Gun Shows.  Strangely enough, murderers seem to prefer unarmed victims.

Which is, of course, precisely the reasoning behind the drive to change the law to allow people to protect themselves – and others – in restaurants.  Suzanna Gratia Hupp – who became an ardent gun-rights spokesperson and Texas legislator after watching her parents slaughtered in the Luby Cafeteria massacre – testified before Congress, in what has to be one of the most moving refutations of the gun-control fallacy ever delivered:

Key phrase: “I’m not really mad at the guy that did this – and I’m certainly not mad at the guns that did this.  They didn’t walk in there by themselves and pull their own triggers.  The guy that did it was a lunatic – that’s like being mad at a rabid dog.  I’m mad at my legislators – for legislating me out of the right to protect myself and my family.” (3:47)

Legislators in Tennessee and Arizona – and several years ago, a very different Legislature and Governor here in Colorado – acted appropriately to ensure that individuals were NOT deprived of the right to protect themselves and their families.  We are ALL safer and better for it.  The Second Amendment: not just a good idea –  it’s the law.

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