by Chad D. Baus The Associated Press is reporting that a student opened fire at his middle school Thursday afternoon, wounding a 14-year-old in the neck before an armed officer working at…
A Challenge to Major Media: Don’t Identify the Next Murdering Deviant
by Jeff Knox
We’ve seen the cycle repeated over and over again: a twisted individual, couple, or small group engages in a depraved attack on unarmed innocents. The media are outraged, astounded, shocked – shocked I say… Quickly they delve into the identity and background of the murderer(s), naming them, showing their pictures, quoting their Facebook pages, talking to their neighbors, families, friends, teachers, and anyone else who can “shed some light” on who the murderer or murderers were and why they might have done such a terrible thing. The media are so anxious to share this information, to be first in the relentless twenty-four-hour news cycle, that they have often released incorrect information, naming the wrong person or linking to the wrong Facebook account or other information. They follow the story for weeks, making the vile killer(s) household names and guaranteeing that they will go down in history for their atrocious actions.
A few days, weeks, or months later, some other deranged soul or souls launch a similar attack, like competitors on a video game, trying to “rack up a higher score” with a more repulsive and shocking atrocity – shooting for a higher “body count,” and once again the media play right along, naming the latest criminal, recounting the horror, and delving into the minutia of the deviant’s life.
Suicide experts have long understood that suicides, particularly teen suicides, are directly influenced by the level of media attention they receive. The less information the media puts out about a suicide, the less likely it is that other troubled people will attempt to end their own lives. Conversely, the more media attention a suicide receives, the more likely others are to follow suit.
After years of diligently educating and criticizing the media for contributing to these trends, media outlets finally began reporting on suicides much more carefully. They quit naming the deceased, or doing emotional tribute pieces about the tragedy of a life cut short and the great potential lost. As a result, suicide epidemics have become much less common, and many lives have been saved.
It is time for the media to admit its own culpability in stimulating mass murderers. It is well past time for them to admit their role in fueling the fire and to change the way they report on mass murderers and rampage killers. The link between media reporting on mass murders and the probability of copycat murders has been known for years. My father, the late Neal Knox, pointed out the link almost 20 years ago and called on the media to make changes back then, but they didn’t listen – or simply refused to act – and the trend of atrocity, media frenzy, and multiple follow-up atrocities has not only continued, it has escalated. Now, with the advent of 24-hour cable news programs and the power of New Media to spread and repeat stories at an amazing level of saturation, mass killers not only become infamous, they become celebrities – and others very quickly try to achieve that same celebrity status.
Get your application in for the NRA Youth Education Summit
Fairfax, Virginia – This year’s Youth Education Summit looked like they had a lot of fun, didn’t they? For all you high school Sophomores and Juniors out there, YOU could be a…
WHIO-TV (CBS Dayton) admits awareness of anti-gun protestor’s status as a convicted rapist; Other news outlets remain silent
by Chad D. Baus
On Wednesday, we reported on the fact that Dayton anti-gun protestor Jerome McCorry, who had staged a small protest outside Bill Goodman’s Gun & Knife Show over the weekend and received generous media attention, is also a convicted rapist.
Courtesy of DomesticDebacle.com
We also pointed out that, despite this fact, media outlets like the Dayton Daily News and WHIO-TV (CBS Dayton) (and, as it turns out, WKEF (ABC Dayton), not only failed to report the fact that McCorry is a sex offender in their coverage of the protest, but that they have repeatedly failed to do so in past coverage about McCorry.
The article quickly went viral, receiving over 21,000 reads in the first 24 hours, and continues to receive strong traffic. It has also generated follow-up reporting from radio host Dana Loesch and nationally-read bloggers, including PJMedia’s Instapundit and Michelle Malkin’s Twitchy.com.
Many have begun asking Dayton media outlets why they have given legitimacy to this rapist’s calls for potential crime victims to be disarmed, and Dayton blogger “Domestic Debacle” has received a response from WHIO, in which they admit that they were aware of McCorry’s status as a sex offender, yet failed to report it.
According to WHIO, they didn’t report on McCorry’s “controversial” status as a convicted rapist because, these days, his message is one of “community harmony through peace and non-violence.” Their desire to “show both sides” apparently now includes showing how a convicted rapist feels about the prospects that potential crime victims might be armed!
As others have observed, the real reason WHIO, Dayton Daily News, and WKEF don’t mention McCorry’s status as a convicted rapist is because they know his message – one they support – will lack any credibility as soon as their audience learns he is a sex offender. Were McCorry leading a Second Amendment rally, his “controversial” past would no doubt be reported boisterously.
While WHIO has at least responded (lame though their excuses are), neither the Dayton Daily News, or WKEF have answered repeated inquiries as to why they are giving a convicted rapist a “highly visible” platform to argue for the disarmament of potential future crime victims.
Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman.
If armed school security won’t work, where are all the mass shootings at armed schools?
by Jeff Riley
Buried in a recent article in The New York Times dismissing armed security at schools is a bit of pro-gun truth, proving if you go looking hard enough, you can eventually find the truth in the most unlikely places.
From the article:
Nationwide, at least 23,000 schools — about one-third of all public schools — already had armed security on staff as of the most recent data, for the 2009-10 school year, and a number of states and districts that do not use them have begun discussing the idea in recent days.
Castle Doctrine continues to work in Ohio: 1 dead, 4 jailed after failed robbery
WDTN (NBC Dayton) is reporting that one man is dead and four others are in jail after an attempted home invasion in Fairborn Monday afternoon. From the article: Police responded to the…
Atty. Gen. Mike DeWine issues letter debunking claim made by Ohio School Board Assoc. attorney re: legality of armed teachers
by Chad D. Baus
Although many have been calling for armed protection in schools for some time, in the immediate aftermath of the horrific events in Newtown, CT last month, the calls grew much, much louder, and began coming from more places.
In Buckeye Firearms Association’s first statements about the attack at Sandy Hook Elementary, Chairman Jim Irvine wrote an article entitled “Our children are dying for our insanity; It’s time to emulate Israel’s successful efforts to prevent mass killings in schools” in which he reiterated our long-held belief that having an armed presence in schools will deter attackers and reduce the severity of these attacks when they do occur.
The following day, Attorney General Mike DeWine voiced his own support for arming school employees.
Despite the fact that the suggestion had now been echoed by the top law enforcement official in the state, questions over the legality of arming school employees were raised by the Ohio School Boards Association’s Chief Legal Counsel, Hollie Reedy.
In media interviews, Reedy suggested that ORC 2923.122, which allows Boards of Education to give permission to persons they wish to be able to carry concealed in the school building, was “not the end of the story. We have to look at other parts of the code.”
Reedy the referred to ORC 109.78, which says that no public or private educational institution is permitted to employ a person “who goes armed while on duty” unless the person has completed a basic peace-officer training program or has 20 years of active duty as a peace officer.
Although a member of DeWine’s staff immediately discounted the suggestion that ORC 109.78 restricted Boards of Education from giving permission to licensed employees to carry in the school, as they do away from the school, Reedy and others continued to make the claim.
Buckeye Firearms Association can now report that Attorney Mike DeWine himself has weighed in on the matter again, in a letter expressly stating that school boards may give permission to licensed employees to carry in the school.
Following is the letter in its entirety:
Convicted rapist organizes gun control demonstration at Dayton gun show; Media fails to note his sex offender status
by Chad D. Baus
This past weekend, a small group of perhaps a dozen protesters gathered outside Dayton’s Hara Arena to protest the sale of modern sporting rifles at Bill Goodman’s Gun and Knife Show.
From the article:
“We know that guns are being sold on the floor inside Hara Arena illegally” said Jerome McCorry. “No background checks no identification of any kind.”
McCorry said “AK-47s and M16s are not gonna be used for hunting, they’re not going to be used to protect anybody. These are the weapons that are coming back and being used in mass murders and mass killings.”
After reading the article, a Buckeye Firearms Association supporter decided to contact McCorry, the apparent protest organizer, to inform him about the inaccuracies in his statements about firearms (it isn’t illegal for private individuals to sell a gun at the show without a background check, people aren’t selling M16s or fully-automatic AK-47s at Hara Arena, modern sporting rifles are used for hunting, gun shows are rarely used by criminals as a source for guns, rifles [of any type] are used in murders far less than fists or baseball bats, etc.).
The supporter quickly found more than he bargained for. A simple Google search for Jerome McCorry reveals that the man trying to tell the public what weapons they should be allowed to own is a convicted felon.
Op-Ed: The AR-15 – The Gun Liberals Love to Hate
by David Keene Politician after politician have joined the television talking heads in calling for a new “assault weapons ban” patterned after the ten-year Clinton ban that was allowed to lapse in…
“Universal Background Checks” – Absolutely Not
by Marion P. Hammer
Imagine a grandfather who wants to give a family shotgun to his 12-year-old grandson having to do a background check on his grandson before giving him the shotgun.
Or a friend having to do a background check on his lifetime best buddy before lending him a hunting rifle.
Or, if your mother had a prowler at her home, having to do a background check on your own Mom before you could give her one of your guns for protection.
That’s what “universal background checks” do. They turn traditional innocent conduct into a criminal offense. They target you, law-abiding gun owners.
Universal background checks are background checks on EVERY transfer, sale, purchase, trade, gift, rental, and loan of a firearm between any and all individuals.
All background checks must be conducted through a federally licensed dealer. Universal background checks have nothing to do with gun shows – they are about you.
It is ALREADY a federal felony to be engaged in the business of buying and selling firearms and ammunition without having a federal firearm dealers license.
It is ALREADY a crime for a federally licensed dealer to sell a gun without doing a background check – that’s all dealers, everywhere, including at retail stores, gun shows, flea markets or anywhere else.
Further, it is ALREADY a federal felony for any private person to sell, trade, give, lend, rent or transfer a gun to a person you know or should have known is not legally allowed to own, purchase or possess a firearm.
The penalty for selling a gun to a person who is a criminal, mentally ill, mentally incompetent, alcohol abuser or drug abuser is a 10-year federal felony. That’s now, today, with no changes to the law.
It is even a federal felony to submit false information on a background check form for the purpose of purchasing a firearm.
Even so, according to a 2012 report to the Department of Justice, more than 72,000 people were turned down on a gun purchase in 2010 because they didn’t pass the background check. Yet, only 44 of those cases were prosecuted. Why, when criminals are caught in the act of lying on the form to illegally purchase a firearm are they not prosecuted?