Constitutional Law

More like the media I once knew

Local newspaper runs a story on mass killings, on the front page. There's a big image (contributed by Brady Campaign) on it (the online version is much smaller). The caption, not contained in the online version, says 'MASS SHOOTINGS SAID TO FOLLOW LENIENT GUN LAWS" with the text "Of the 14 mass shootings since 1999 in the US, 10 have occurred in state identified by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has having the weakest or second-weakest gun laws."

The chart only shows the 48 contiguous States. Of those 39 are in "weakest or second-weakest," and 9 are not. So the nine non-weak States have had mass slayings ... just under half of them. The 39 "weak" ones have had 10 ... barely a quarter of them. That's simple math that a reporter could have done in thirty seconds or less.

Without getting into details such as why does Brady rate Pennsylvania as have stronger gun laws than New York or Massachusetts. Or why California, in Brady's top rating, shows as having no mass killings when five people were fatally shot in Temecula in 2007, and another nine died of shooting or fire in Covina the next year, and the following year three were killed in Long Beach.

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on February 20, 2011 (boomark / email).