Ghosts, Bumps And Kneejerks

The gun enthusiasts at the Media Research Center kept up their kneejerk defense of guns -- even offering dubious defenses of ghost guns and bump stocks.

The Media Research Center has long been an enthusiastic gun defender — even in the wake of gun massacres. That enthusiasm extends to defending even more dubious things like ghost guns and bump stocks.

When Philadelphia officials tried to hold ghost-gun providers accountable for the carnage their weapons create, the MRC objected. Naturally, this started as an attempt to deflect from yet another mass shooting by, of course, focusing on anything else but the guns. Nicholas Fondacaro did exactly that in a July 2023 post:

On Tuesday, authorities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania announced that the suspect behind the Monday mass shooting there was Kimbrady Carriker, a transgendered man who pretends to be a woman and a Black Lives Matter activist. But while the Wednesday morning newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC omitted all of that information, ABC’s Good Morning America went the furthest, using gender-neutral pronouns when talking about the shooter and editing a video of the district attorney referring to Carriker as male.

“We do turn to the mass shooting that left five people dead in Philadelphia. We are learning more about the victims and police are identifying the suspected shooter who they say was armed for battle,” ABC co-anchor Whit Johnson declared, teasing they would inform viewers about the shooter.

But correspondent Trevor Ault refused to disclose anything about Carriker’s background and repeatedly used gender-neutral/plural pronouns and other non-descript language:

[…]

It was late in the report when Ault actually got around to giving a name to the suspect, even then, he refused to call the shooter a male. ABC was so dedicated to not offending the sensibilities of a mass shooter that they edited a video of liberal District Attorney Larry Krasner using male pronouns:

Fondacaro failed to explain what relevance (beyond his employer-mandated transphobia, that is) the shooter’s alleged transgender status had in the shooting. When the topic turned to the fact that the shooter was armed with untraceable ghost guns, Fondacaro whined in a post the next day:

With the broadcast networks ignoring the fact that the Philadelphia mass shooter was transgendered and a Black Lives Matter activist, their new narrative was to put focus on the weapons used: so-called “ghost guns.” Both ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Todaycelebrated liberal Philly District Attorney Larry Krasner targeting two gun parts manufacturers (Polymer80 and JSD Supply) with laws suits, despite both companies selling a perfectly legal product.

“We also have information this morning out for Philadelphia and that mass shooting that left five people dead. We’re learning more now about the ghost guns use in the attack,” announced co-anchor Whit Johnson.

[…]

But in the reality obfuscated by the ABC, it’s not that easy. The parts sold by those companies are legally considered 80 percent finished and special milling equipment is needed to finish the build. These kits are completely legal and at-home gun building has been an American tradition since before the founding of the country.

Ana Schau whined further about it in another post the same day:

CNN decided to break the new information about the ghost guns used in the Philadelphia shooting over the weekend on Thursday’s CNN News Central by blaming the ghost gun manufacturers and distributers for the shooting. In addition to blaming these companies for this shooting, anchor Sara Sidner hosted former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe on the show to essentially blame these companies for illegal gun ownership as well, since apparently they were “specifically…marketed to evade the law.”

Sidner began the segment by briefly describing the shooting itself, as well as breaking the new information about the ghost guns that were used in the crime. She then described ghost guns, being careful to note specifically that this type of firearm “doesn’t have any markings, and is not traceable.”

As if having a serial number would have somehow stopped the shooting?

Sidner then brought McCabe on the show to discuss the fact that “the City of Philadelphia is suing the two largest suppliers of ghost guns,” Polymer80, Inc. and JSD Supply. McCabe called the lawsuit “an admirable step” to “start to address” the issue, since Biden’s federal ban had been overthrown.

This lawsuit, in principle, makes no sense. Making firearms has always been legal in America, and possession of these firearms when completed is also legal, according to the Second Amendment. Suing a company for selling a product that enabled these things wasn’t right, even if those guns were used for bad things.

When McCabe pointed out that “really anyone with any sort of mechanical ability” could use these companies’ kits to construct a gun, Schau huffed in response: “In reality, these guns required quite a bit of skill and some specific equipment to assemble, not merely the simple task that these two seemed to think it was.” She offered no evidence to back this up. She then insisted that the disclaimers the companies post on their websites purportedly absolve them of blame:

And yet, amidst all of those claims, the websites of both companies being sued advise the buyer to follow the firearm regulations in his area. JSD Supply disclaimed for the buyer to “always make sure you know your local firearms laws for your own protection.” Polymer80’s website included a disclaimer at the bottom of the page that read, “By using this website, or using or purchasing a Polymer80 product, you affirm that you have verified that you may possess, purchase, and use Polymer80 products under all applicable federal, state, and local laws.”

Rather than seeming like a place that was “perfect” for criminals to obtain guns, these websites seemed to be places that cared a lot about the law, and encouraged its customers to follow all pertinent regulations.

If criminals ignore gun-control laws, as the MRC loves to claim whenever such regulations are proposed, there’s no reason to believe they won’t also ignore these disclaimers as well.

Schau’s post called McCabe an “FBI Liar” in its headline, though she identified nothing he said as a “lie” in her post.

Bump stock ruling

The MRC was pretty darn excited when the Supreme Court overturned a ban on bump stocks that mimic an automatic weapon — implemented under the Trump administration after it was used to help kill dozens of people in a gun massacre in Las Vegas — and unsurprisingly angry that non-gun-humpers questioned the wisdom of the ruling. Fondacaro spent a June 14 post whining that the dissenting justices’ opinions were noted:

Friday marked a big win for gun rights advocates when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Trump administration-era ban on bump stocks by the ATF. In their immediate reactions to the 6-3 ruling, CNN Newsroom pontificators were largely unhappy with the court’s affirmation of a piece of plastic not being a machine gun and lauded the “fiery” dissenting opinion authored by liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Of course, the opinion just flaunted their ignorance of firearm mechanics.

Chief legal analyst Paula Reid seemed rather disinterested while reading the majority opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, who explained the technical details of the mechanical workings of a firearm that would lead to a machine gun designation:

[…]

She followed up by lauding Sotomayor’s “fiery” but ultimately ignorant take on machine gun mechanics. “When I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck. A bump stock-equipped semi-automatic rifle fires automatically more than one shot without manual reloading by a single function of the trigger. Because I, like Congress, call that a machine gun,” the liberal justice proclaimed.

To use her duck analogy against her; Sotomayor might see a creature with a bill and webbed feet that lays eggs and loves to swim, but what she’s calling a duck is actually a platypus (Not to be confused with the 1911 Platypus from Stealth Arms, particularly their “Perry the” model).

“And yes, you can read from that dissent from Sotomayor. She’s frustrated and she’s been making it clear. She’s been frustrated lately on the Supreme Court,” host Jim Acosta sympathized with her.

Luckily, Republican strategist and owner of GunsOut, LLC Shermichael Singleton was on set to school the liberals on the basic mechanics of firearms:

Alex Christy complained that a man who has directly felt the impact of gun violence was allowed to have an opinion:

Reacting to the Supreme Court’s Friday ruling striking down an executive ban on bump stocks, MSNBC’s Joy Reid welcomed Fred Guttenberg, daughter of Parkland victim Jamie Guttenberg, to The ReidOut. While Guttenberg naturally blasted the Court’s decision, he also opined on matters that have nothing to do with gun control, such as claiming Justice Clarence Thomas hates America and that the decision will possibly lead to pre-election violence from MAGA.

Reid simply opened the floor up to Guttenberg, “Fred, I hate that I call upon you and only see you in these circumstances. But I just want to let you respond to what the Court did today.”

Guttenberg claimed that Friday was also the day that “demolition crews started tearing down the building that my daughter was killed in, my daughter and 16 others” and asserted that “because of today’s decision, we won’t be talking about 15 killed or 20 killed. We’ll be talking about 100 killed or 200 killed.”

He would then turn his attention to Thomas and add, “More people are going to die. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s signature will be on their death certificate.”

People like Reid invite people like Guttenberg on their shows because they think his tragic story gives them the moral authority to say things that they would be less likely to get away with. However, Guttenberg left the realm of gun control activism and entered the realm of progressive activism more generally when he added, “For whatever reason, that man hates everything that makes America great, and this is going to be so deadly.”

Christy then huffed that Reid raised the specter of election violence by right-wingers emboldened by the ruling: “The idea that there are a bunch of Trump supporters who are now going to possibly shoot up a polling place because of this ruling is wildly irresponsible and Joy Reid should not be allowed to get away with it by simply citing Guttenberg’s tragic biography.”

Jorge Bonilla defended the majority opinion in a June 16 post grousing that a Republican was asked about it:

While sitting in as host of the latest edition of ABC’s This Week, Jon Karl attempted to gotcha Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) with the Supreme Court’s recent opinion on bump stocks, leading into an exchange on crime. The exchange did not end well for Karl.

[…]

So much of what passes for “journalism” these days is this performative attempt at gotchaing conservatives against past statements. At issue in the majority opinion on bump stocks is whether unelected bureaucrats within the ATF have the authority to reclassify a hunk of plastic as a “machine gun”. The Court found that they do not, and this would have made for an interesting discussion on This Week. Alas, that did not happen.

Bonilla spouted similar whining in another post that day.

Fondacaro returned in a June 17 post to complain that gun violence in the wake of the ruling was discussed:

Over the weekend, three communities across the United States were victims of gun violence as parties and gatherings came to sudden ends when scumbags decided to kill people. NBC’s Today looked to exploit the tragedies on Monday by having correspondent Erin McLaughlin blame the murders on the U.S. Supreme Court, citing their decision to strike down the Trump-era bump stock ban. But none of the shootings involved bump stocks.

[…]

“The weekend shootings come just days after the Supreme Court struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks,” she proclaimed as if the shooting were direct result of the conservative justices defending gun rights and pushing back against the administrative state. “The gun accessories used to modify semi-automatic weapons so they can fire faster. But this morning, many are just searching for answers.”

Despite her suggestion, there’s no evidence that bump stocks were used in any of the shootings. As of the publication of this piece, it appeared as though authorities had not yet released what kind of firearm was used in the Round Rock and Methuen shootings, but it’s likely that if it was an “AR-style” rifle, it would have been plastered everywhere. In fact, a handgun was recovered from the scene of the Rochester Hills, which was incompatible with bump stocks.

Fondacaro then moved on to another bogus hobby horse of his:

If that misinformation wasn’t bad enough, she also cited claims from the left-leaning Gun Violence Archive that, “So far this year, there have been 225 mass shootings in the U.S.” NewsBusters has repeatedly debunked their hyperbolic numbers and pointed out their deceptive methodology.

Fondacaro is lying, as he usually is. As ConWebWatch has documented, he and the MRC have never “debunked” the Gun Violence Archive’s numbers — they are completely accurate, and he’s just mad because he doesn’t like the group’s methodology, which tends to make guns look bad.

All of these writers, by the way, completely censored any mention of the Las Vegas gun massacre that prompted the bump stock ban the Supreme Court overturned.

More kneejerk defenses

Brad Wilmouth is one of the MRC’s top kneejerk defenders of, and apologists for, guns. He complained about criticism of a Tennessee plan to arm teachers in a May 5 post:

Over the last few weeks as a bill made its way through the Republican-dominated Tennessee legislature to permit local areas to decide whether to let teachers concealed carry firearms to deter mass shooters, several MSNBC hosts found it “shocking” and brought on “The Tennessee Three,” their favorite far-left Democrats from the state’s House of Representatives — Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson — to smear Republicans and push conspiracy theories.

MSNBC host Ali Velshi claimed that the new law was “worse than doing nothing,” and, on the April 28 edition of his eponymous weekend show, went along with State Representative Justin Jones’s theory that Republicans hope arming teachers will scare parents away from sending their children to public schools. Velshi responded: “I don’t want my kids going to a place where there’s yet more guns in the school. I’d like zero guns in the schools.”

A bit after Jones declared that Republican Governor Bill Lee “has no conscience and no courage,” weekend host Alex Witt concluded the segment on her April 27 show by gushing: “I’m really glad you were voted back in office.”

A few minutes earlier, among his substantial trashing of Republicans, Jones further declared: “the governor just spit on the face of all these people and spit on the graves of the six people killed by signing this law. Nothing to reign in gun violence like common sense gun laws that would expand universal background checks, ban assault weapons, red flag laws. Instead, he’s putting a law to arm teachers — something that no teachers want in our state.”

[…]

While some of the liberal guests invoked the Covenant school shooting that occurred in the state in 2023, it was not mentioned that that school was a gun-free zone or that nearly all mass shooters who target public places choose gun-free zones to make it less likely they will face resistance, thus pointing to a deterrence value of armed teachers.

And while Democrat guests fretted that armed teachers would lead to more violence, MSNBC hosts ignored research finding that schools with armed teachers tend to be safer.

The alleged evidence Wilmouth cites on gun-free zones comes from the Crime Prevention Research Center, which is run by the discredited pro-gun “researcher” John Lott, so there’s no reason to trust it at face value. And the paper on the alleged safety of schools with armed teachers was written by Lott — another red flag.

In a June 2 post on a PBS segment about far-right challengers to Republican candidates, Wilmouth complained that “disgruntled former Republican Joe Walsh” noted that Texas Republican congressman Tony Gonzales “barely won against a far-right, gun-loving kook who would have beaten him if that was the only issue.” Wilmouth didn’t dispute the description, but he also didn’t admit that it’s entirely true; his main claim to fame involves YouTube videos of himself shooting things. Instead, he was mostly engaged in distraction and whataboutism, whining that the PBS host didn’t mention that “Walsh left the Republican party in 2020 after his failed attempt to win the GOP presidential nomination” and that “no mention had been made that there has also been a trend for decades of congressional Democrats electing more solidly left-wing members.”