Alphecca

Weekly Check on the Bias

Welcome to the July 19th edition of my Weekly Check on the Bias by media concerning guns and the 2nd Amendment. News is traditionally slow during the Summer months but we'll always have Columbus, Ohio. You might call this the "Beauties and the Beasts" edition. Let me start with the Beauties, which has nothing to do with media bias and everything to do with fine photography.

Robert Langham is an NRA member, a Texas State Rifle Team National Match Shooter, a Junior Rifle coach, and a holder of the Distinguished Rifleman's Badge. He has donated his time to help train US Army troops. He's also a superb photographer who puts together the photos used in the Texas State Rifle Association Calendars. Fortunately for us, he's also a reader here and has offered to let me put up this year's photos. I'll be including several, along with his commentary, in each week's report. I'll put his comments first, then the photos.

My neighbor is AC Gentry the semi-famous watercolorist. I must admit, Gentry is a real man's kind of outdoor man. He paints, he hunts, he drinks coffee with the other retired guys. Then he paints some more. This shotgun belonged to HIS grandfather.

In WWII AC was a pathfinder for the Army Island landings in the Pacific. He and some others swam ashore the night before several pacific Island landings and helped guide units in.

I got permission to photograph his Parker Brothers 20 Guage. Gentry says he has probably killed 10,000 quail with this gun. I don't doubt it.

While he snored through his afternoon nap a couple of rooms over, I photographed this in the office. I used windowlight and one silver card. Custom white balance cleaned up the color. I turned on the Vibration Reduction Tool since I was handholding at 1/4. You can see the silver card in the side plate. Two of Gentry's watercolors are behind the chair. That's his coat and gloves.

One of the old widowers at our family church was a B17 ball turret gunner in the Eighth Air Force. I've known him all his life but only in the past few years since his wife died and he retired did he begin to discuss his service. His plane was shot down after D-Day and he parachuted into France armed with this pistol issued in England. The French hid him in a town attic until the Germans had been pushed out of the area. While he was hidden by the French, a woman asked if she could use his parachute to make a wedding dress. He and some other crew members were reunited at the wedding after the Nazis were gone. The French had taken his pistol but returned it when US troops overran the area.

I asked Bill if I could shoot his W.W.II Ithaca 1911 A1 for the Texas CCL range qualification. He agreed, but when he got it out I noticed that the ammunition was marked "EC 43." It was the same ammunition that he had in it when his B17 was hit over France.

Bill gave me his pistol before he died last year. I photographed it when he was still alive, in his front yard in sunlight on top of a box of range gear out of my truck. He sat next to me and held a reflector. The background is the remains of his France parachute. That's his England flight line ID, a slug from an ME 109, some 88 shrapnel, his original holster, and ammo. I used a handheld Nikon Coolpix 8800, sunlight, and two silvercard reflectors.

The pistol shot a perfect CCL score with hardball Winchester .45.

My Ruger #1 has been in the last two calendars so I gave it a break and borrowed this pre-64 Model 70 Winchester 300 Win Mag. I have at least one friend with good taste in rifles. I stood the rifle up with clamps and draped in a deer hide and a USGS map for the background. I put my binoculars and my hat in the foreground. That's a Distinguished Rifleman's patch on the hat, # 1659, for you heathens.

The deer skull is the largest deer I ever took. I shot it nearly in the city limits after I rattled it up in a big thicket during the rut. I boiled the whole head in a big pot of water for a couple of days. (full disclosure again: I'm not married) Makes a nice mount. Next to it is a Caddoan bowl with a Texas Hunter Safety Education patch and a fake folded $20 bill that you open and find information about turning Osama Bin Laden in. They were going to drop these all over Afghanistan, but someone decided it wasn't PC.

The photo is lit from bluish window light and a tungsten bulb bounced off a white card on the right side. The left side has a BIG white foam core board bouncing window light back. Coolpix again, handheld. I balanced for the window light and then let the tungsten go warm.

That red strap on the binocs was on every pair of binoculars I ever remember my father ever using.

Thank you, Robert. Having mercy on dial-up readers, I am only presenting small, low resolution versions of his photos. More to come in the following weeks including information on how you can support the TSRA by purchasing the calendars and seeing just how beautiful the pictures really are.

Well, now we turn to the ugliness of the media...

Folks, let's just hypothetically say that an automobile enthusiasts' convention was planned for Podunk, OH. And the city council of Podunk decided to ban all sports cars. Wouldn't you say it was not only perfectly reasonable but actually to be expected that the convention would be moved to some other city? Apparently, Mainstream Media feels otherwise.

The big news last week (other than the sham UN conference on world-wide gun control) was that the City of Columbus, Ohio decided to enact -- once again -- an "assault weapons" ban. You know, banning guns that operate just like any other guns but have scary looking features such as pistol grips and folding stocks. Pathetically, they use the specter of "terrorism" as the chief concern in the bill's language by stating that "assault weapons" and particularly the AK-47 are favored by Al Quada as reported in their training manuals.

Well, I haven't read of any Al Quada terrorists shooting up Columbus, or any other American city (they seem to prefer bombs and airplanes) and since -- again, we have a simple ban on cosmetic features in these banned guns -- this ordinance is simply "feel good" law. All semi-automatic guns operate exactly the same in that only one bullet is fired when the trigger is pulled.

The NRA rightfully changed their plans to hold their 2007 annual convention there since many vendors would be prevented from displaying their wares.

Most newspaper and TV outlets merely repeated the AP Story:

The National Rifle Association has abandoned plans to hold its 2007 convention in Columbus following the passage of a ban on assault weapons by city officials.

The ban, passed earlier this month, outlaws the sale or possession of semiautomatic rifles with pistol grips and detachable magazines. Mayor Michael Coleman said that the NRA and other groups will not dictate city policy and that the ban will make Columbus safer, which will attract other convention business.

The NRA, however, was clear about its decision Monday.

"When freedom comes back to Columbus, we will come back to Columbus," NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in a statement posted on the group's Web site.

Now this is interesting because if Mayor Coleman thinks "the ban will make Columbus safer" then he clearly hasn't a clue as to how criminals operate. Mr. Mayor? Criminals are not going to stop using guns. They certainly are not going to stop choosing whatever weapons they want just because you and your misguided city council decided to ban certain ones.

The New York Times said this:

Supporters of the Columbus law, including the police officers union, said they pushed for a local ban in response to the expiration of the federal law. They said that the Columbus police had confiscated larger numbers of military-style weapons in recent years from criminals, including a murder suspect who wounded a police officer in a fierce gun battle last year.

"We need anything that puts another tool in our belt to keep weapons out of criminals' hands," said Detective Daniel R. Jones, the officer who was wounded in that firefight and has lost hearing in one ear.

So cops have seen a "larger number" of supposed "assault weapons" in recent years. Odd, since the federal ban only ended nine months ago. I guess the mutants slithering among us ignored THAT bill, too. And that just makes Det. Jones' statement all the more asinine because the only logical conclusion you could draw from it is that eventually, all guns have to be banned. And isn't that the real agenda? Too bad it still wouldn't work to keep weapons out of criminals' hands.

Mayor Coleman is planning to run for Ohio Governor next year. The NY Times continues:

Aides to Mr. Coleman said they would try to counter the rifle association's attacks on him by portraying the mayor as a crime fighter whose main goal has been to take weapons away from criminals. They also suggested that Mr. Coleman's support for an assault weapon ban might help him among more liberal Democratic primary voters.

Ah yes, Coleman wants to appeal to liberal Democrats. That would be the party of losers in Ohio in the 2004 presidential election.

The real problem with city ordinances such as this is the same as we saw in Denver, Colorado and in several cities in Virginia; citizens from other parts of the state who are behaving in a perfectly law-abiding fashion and owning a perfectly legal product suddenly become criminals if they drive or walk through Columbus. From the Morning Journal (OH):

The sponsor of Ohio's law allowing concealed weapons said yesterday he wants the state to override local bans on types of guns, a move that would cancel Columbus' decision to outlaw assault weapons.

[...]

State Rep. Jim Aslanides, sponsor of the law permitting people to carry hidden guns, said local weapons bans should not be allowed because Ohioans should feel confident they are not breaking the law by carrying weapons through the state's cities and villages.

Such a law would supersede the Columbus ban, said Aslanides, a Coshocton Republican.
''It would solidify specifically that a statewide weapons law cannot be pre-empted. The purpose of that is not to stop what's occurred in Columbus, but to stop the arrests of people carrying legally,'' Aslanides said.

At least such a bill by Aslanides would protect the rest of Ohio's law-abiding gun owners even if there's no hope for Mayor Coleman's subjects.

I do have to let you see one completely over the top press release by Toby Hoover of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence that is titled:

NRA Retaliates Against Columbus, Ohio for Regulating Cop-Killer Assault Weapons by Moving 2007 Annual Meeting

Yeah, okay, Toby, whatever...

Turning to neighboring Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a compromise has been reached between a gun show promoter and the venue that tried to end their association after an accident left one man with an injured leg during a recent show. From the article:

The gun shows will go on, but all sides have agreed on more safety precautions after the accidental shooting of a man at a Pennsylvania Gun Collectors Association show in May at the Pittsburgh ExpoMart in Monroeville.

Walter Gladkoski, 65, of Monroeville, was hospitalized May 14 with a wound of his lower leg.

State police said Gladkoski accidentally was shot by John Bogesdorfer, 64, of Monroeville, who was handling a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun at the booth of Hannah's Gun Shop of Tipton, Blair County. The weapon had been exhibited under glass and, as Bogesdorfer handled it, the pistol discharged, Samuel Kamin, an attorney representing the gun association, said yesterday.

No charges were filed.

After the shooting, Oxford Development Corp. and Mart/Hotel Limited Partnership, which operate ExpoMart, sought to void its lease with the gun association, which holds several shows a year at that venue.

Two years remain on the lease.

Kamin said average crowds of about 5,000, including dozens of law enforcement representatives, attend the shows.

Considering this was the first accident in 57 years of the show, I'd say that ExpoMart has come to their senses.

From California's Daily Press comes this pro-gun rights editorial:

The fight to maintain our rights is a never-ending struggle. We were reminded of this recently when we received a postcard from an organization called the Freedom States Alliance. This is an outfit that uses scare tactics about terrorism to push its anti-gun agenda.

Pictured on the front of the card was a civilian airliner with an illustration of a rifle scope's crosshairs centered to the nose of the plane and the Web site www.50CaliberTerror.com listed across the top. On the back was a listing of why .50 caliber rifles should be banned. The reasons might seem reasonable, but a bit of research shows them to be exaggerated and open to interpretation.

The first claim is that the rifles are "the most lethal weapons available on the civilian market, but are easier to purchase than a handgun." For openers, it might be relatively easy to purchase one of these rifles, but it's not cheap. The most basic, bare-bones, single-shot models will set you back about $1,600. Terrorists can get AK-47s and similar rifles for about $200 each, so it's unlikely they'd opt for the more costly rifle.

[...]

What the ban proponents propose is to get rid of .50 caliber rifles before they can do harm. Although that might seem reasonable, it's not how things should work in a free society. We don't put people in jail because they might commit a crime, we must wait until they actually break the law and are convicted.

While I'm not sure that the editorial writer has all his facts straight (civilians can buy the $7000 dollar semi-automatics if they want, for instance) at least his heart is in the right place. Laws must be based in facts, not speculations or conjecture.

From the department of "Here's How It's Done" comes this Houston Chronicle story:

A northwest Loop-area homeowner shot and killed an intruder early today, Houston police said.

The dead suspect, who has not yet been identified, was shot by Peter Heckler, 51, when he threatened Heckler with a weapon while trying to break into Heckler's home about 3:45 a.m., police said.

and then we get a similar one with rather a lot of bias in it from the Miami Herald:

A man in Davie took the law into his own hands early this morning when he shot and killed a young man, according to police and news reports.

It was unclear what the young man, 18-year-old Richard Rojas, was doing at the home, which is where his ex-girlfriend lives.

The shooter, whose name police did not release, fired at Rojas about 1:40 a.m. Wednesday after he approached the home at 15025 SW 51st St. in Davie. No one has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting.

Gee, what could Rojas have been doing at 1:40 AM at his ex-girlfriend's home? Oh I know, stalking her? Threatening her and her new boyfriend? We only read about this stuff about every three hours in various newspapers. If taking "the law into his own hands" means defending himself and his girlfriend from some angry mutant, I hope more will follow suit. Restraining orders are not enough.

Turning to one more example of how the gun control crowd just doesn't get it, we have the sad story of three young people killed in Racine, Wisconsin:

Investigators haven't yet determined what prompted the shootings in a municipal parking lot near several bars.

A patrolling officer heard several gunshots early yesterday and traced them to the lot, where he found a big group of people. Officials say gang members were among the crowd.

Two 23-year-old men and a 22-year-old were killed.

The mother of one of the dead says he "was just there with the crowd."

While I certainly feel bad for the mother, we are talking about "a crowd" in a parking lot at night with gang members involved. 2+2=4.

But not to the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort (WAKE):

Gun-control advocates in the city said Monday that this weekend's triple homicide was a tragic example of the need to restrict guns in Wisconsin.

"It's terrible for the people involved; for the friends and family who have to go through this. It's really sad when we lose three of our citizens to gun violence," said Racine Alderman Pete Karas, member of the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort. "We have to curb the availability of guns. We need to get out of this cycle of violence - this attitude that more guns on the streets makes us safe. We don't want to create a situation like the shootout at the OK Corral."

While it can't be known if the shooting would have happened with stricter gun-control laws, Karas said more guns at the scene would have led to more deaths and injuries.

The state Legislature came within one vote last year of allowing state residents to carry concealed handguns if they applied for a permit. The Republican-led Assembly and Senate failed in their bid to override Gov. Jim Doyle's veto of the measure.

Karas said he recognizes crime reduction and violence prevention is a bigger issue involving other factors, such as Racine's high unemployment rate, gangs, drugs, socio-economic standing, living conditions and education.

[...]

"Apparently the individuals involved in the shooting who died had concealed weapons. We have to make sure a conceal to carry law does not become law in Wisconsin," Karas said. "It just compounds the issue."

Um, Karas? Is it possible that if the victims had been able to defend themselves, and the gang-bangers knew this, that there would have been less deaths and injuries?

So, according to WAKE, the thugs had concealed weapons -- by golly, that's against the law, isn't it? -- and the dead didn't. And that's how WAKE wants to keep things. Don't allow victims to protect themselves, they should just stand there and die like sheep while the mutants continue to ignore laws and get away with -- literally -- murder.

This flies in the face of statistics that show that when the law-abiding are able to conceal-carry, crime goes down because criminals become wary. WAKE's demented logic is the same as that of the UN regarding "small arms control" where the victims should STAY victims and the mutants should be given free-range to commit their atrocities. *Sigh*

Here's what's happening at a few other sites:

Blogonomicon has an email up stating that Republicans are just as disingenuous as gun-grabbers.

Confederate Yankee reports on a different kind of media bias.

FreedomSight points out that most liberal organizations that champion various causes always manage to ignore or work against the one that would help them the most.

Say Uncle let's us peek into his AK workshop.

GrampaPinhead is joining the e-postal matches.

The War on Guns has more on the NRA convention move from Columbus but does take Wayne LaPierre to task.

Man, I am SO late with this that I'd better get it posted NOW.

Thanks for stopping by and -- of course -- I'll be on Cam's later this afternoon.

Posted by Jeff Soyer at July 19, 2005 11:23 AM