Although rarely in the public eye, the Wash., D.C.-Beltway crowd
are getting an eyeful of crime victims shooting their attackers
in a most unusual place this morning -- USA Today.
In stories their readers don't normally get to see, a paid advertising
column in the Life section features news of people who are alive
today because they had ready access to fully loaded guns -- including
so-called assault weapons -- and were able to shoot down vicious
thugs who attacked them.
These first responders -- as the column calls them -- get very little
national press, and the second responders, the police, who typically
show up later, are mislabeled, leading to a badly misinformed public,
according to The First-Responders Report TM, the first in an ongoing series.
The second column is scheduled for next week.
"Black Bystander with Gun Saves Mother,
Helps Capture Assailants"
Read the column
http://www.gunlaws.com
"When seconds count, the police are just minutes away," says Alan Korwin,
quoting common-sense street logic. He is the publisher at GunLaws.com
and Bloomfield Press, which is sponsoring the columns. "People who
are victimized by murderous criminals are the real first responders.
Out here we know that. It's important to set that record straight, and
just maybe, to convince the media to get it right." The national media
perpetually suppresses such stories.
"I once had an AP bureau chief tell me they don't want to run stories like this because
they don't want to encourage this kind of behavior; it could create copy cats," Korwin recalls.
"That stunned me."
"What was wrong with having people stop criminals? If the AP was
afraid people would copy behavior they wrote about, how can they run
incessant stories about people who go berserk?" he asks. "Do I have to
complete that thought for you?"
Some media critics agree that constant glorification of psychopaths
in the news creates copy-cat behavior, but if this is true, it is all the
more reason to feature people who stand up to criminals and, instead of
becoming statistics in waves of crime, are heroes who stop aggressors
dead in their tracks. Studies show it happens a lot -- innocent civilians
stopping crimes and the police picking up the pieces, afterwards.
"Woman Alive Thanks To Sidearm;
Calls 911, Then Shoots Attacker"
Read the column
http://www.gunlaws.com
A person confronted by an active shooter or a crime in progress has
two basic choices -- do nothing and hope the maniac leaves you alone,
or do something to protect yourself. The law has always protected
people who act to defend their lives in such situations.
The media in the past has been quick to show crime, but
unfortunately have chosen not to prominently show cases of self defense,
giving the public a terribly distorted view of reality. There is no penalty
for giving the public a terribly distorted view of reality, or for violating
the clear codes of ethics the industry itself has developed but does
not enforce. Reporters are not currently regulated or licensed, and
don't need to pass any level of competency or testing to practice, so
little action can be taken against those who misrepresent the public trust.
They are also protected by the Bill of Rights.
The First-Responders Report TM aims to change this false impression
and both improve gun safety and do something about crime.
USA Today has taken an important step in moving this issue to the
front of the national stage, and we thank them for it, even if it was an
expensive proposition. And yes, we will gladly entertain inquiries from
those interested in sponsoring future editions of the column in
the Wash., D.C-area and other regions of the country.
The company's USA Today advertorial column can be viewed at GunLaws.com.
BACKGROUNDER
According to an analysis of related New York Times stories, in a single year,
that paper ran 104 gun-crime articles totalling 50,745 words, balanced
by a single 163-word story involving a retired cop. In USA Today for
the same year, the word total was 5,660 words on gun-involved crime
with nothing at all for balance. USA Today has earned some respect
for giving this issue the light of day, even if it's only as an ad.
Analysis of anti-gun bias in the news:
http://www.gunlaws.com/JohnLottMediaBias.htm
Comprehensive details on news-media bias:
http://www.gunlaws.com/NewsAccuracy.htm
Even the smallest scholarly studies estimate hundreds of thousands
of armed self-defense incidents annually. The largest estimates run
into the millions, with 2.5 million annually the most often cited figure,
from a Florida State University study. All 13 studies are summarized
and reviewed in a book Bloomfield Press sells entitled Armed,
New Perspectives on Gun Control, by Gary Kleck and Don Kates.
[All emfasis has been added by David.]
