By Kayleigh Hamilton
Gun rights are under assault from one top media outlet.
They are looking to strip Americans of their constitutional rights.
And now they are lobbying politicians to crack down on gun ownership.
Journalists and reporters tend to be people who live in cosmopolitan areas who have very little experience with guns.
This cosmopolitan bias impacts nearly everything they write about politics, from economics, to foreign policy, to the Second Amendment.
They live in upscale, urban areas where gun ownership is frowned upon, and guns are something they only hear about on the news when mass shootings happen.
This bleeds into their writing when the topic of guns comes up, as they are flabbergasted that so many Americans place such a high value on their right to bear arms.
And it leads them to start using their public platform for activism instead of journalism.
That is exactly what is happening at the Portland Press Herald after the latest thinkpiece that they put out about the Second Amendment.
They are trying to rewrite history and claim that the Second Amendment doesn’t actually protect all guns or all gun owners.
Here’s what they said in the article: “The framers of our Constitution penned the Second Amendment over two centuries ago. Today, the meaning of that amendment is being endlessly debated. In any debate that impacts gun laws, protecting the safety of citizens must always be the first priority. It hasn’t always been.
“Last year, more than 42,000 people died from gun-related incidents, and twice as many were injured. Mass shootings reached a multiyear high, with school shootings now the highest on record. In 2020, guns became the No. 1 cause of death for Americans under the age of 19. The 400 million guns in circulation have not made us safer.”
Further down in the article, they get into more specifics about what they are actually calling for.
“State and federal lawmakers need to use a little common sense and stop watering down gun laws that are needed by law enforcement to make sensible decisions about removing guns from the hands of people at risk for violence. They need to stop blocking effective universal background check legislation that would keep at-risk individuals from getting guns in the first place.
“Why isn’t common sense being applied to gun laws in this country? Follow the money. The sale and lucrative aftermarket of 400 million guns carries a lot of influence into the pockets of many of those responsible for our gun laws.”
Of course, since the author likely doesn’t know very many gun owners, he assumes that the reason gun rights have been so strong in this country is because of a conspiracy.
But his conspiracy theory is wrong. The gun industry isn’t primarily responsible for the preservation of the Second Amendment. It’s the millions of gun owners who base their votes on gun rights.
The media needs to stop pushing ineffective gun control policies and start respecting the rights of Americans that are written into our Constitution.