Debunking more media gun control myths

The long-running TV show MythBusters employs real-life experiments to "test the validity" of various myths and popular notions.  Two recent media narratives against the National Rifle Association (NRA) could use similar scrutiny.

The first myth to be tested is that gun-owners need to be convinced by the NRA that anti-gun zealots see gun ownership as the problem and confiscation as the solution.  Bill Scher, explaining how "the NRA always wins" at politico.com, says the NRA has "convinced its followers that gun ownership" "must be defended on a daily basis."; The writer adds his view of NRATV:

Every minute, the network pumps out a message that can be delivered regardless of external events: Liberal elites want to take away your guns and freedom.

But a quick scan of the day's news finds plenty of liberal elites looking to eliminate guns:

• The ever reliable Gov.  John Kasich (R-Ohio) wants to take away the AR-15: "Would you feel your Second Amendment rights would be eroded because you couldn't buy ...  [an] AR-15?"

• New Jersey's new Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, wants a tri-state "gun law compact" with his fellow Democrat governors, Dan Malloy of Connecticut and Andrew Cuomo of New York ;Murphy's ideas include banning "the sale of all traditional handguns by mandating the sale of only 'Smart Guns'" and banning "'armor piercing' ammunition," which the NRA says "would ban most rifle ammunition."

• A column at realclearpolitics.com says Democrats now plan to emphasize "gun control" as a campaign issue, including "expanded background checks" and "banning military-style assault weapons."

• A cnn.com column says "Americans worship false idols in the form of weapons," which I suppose is one step beyond clinging to guns or religion.  Speaking of the Second Amendment, the writer, Jay Parini, adds: "Anyone who has actually read this astonishingly brief and enigmatic constitutional amendment knows what baloney will be found on that plate."

• Citing Australia's mandatory "gun buyback," Parini says "it's no matter that we have the perfectly good example of Australia, where for over 20 years we've watched the rapid decline in gun deaths."  That in itself is another myth, which was debunked after Hillary Clinton proposed emulating the Australian gun ban.

So do gun owners need the NRA to be convinced that liberal elites want to take away their guns?  I don't think so.  Let's consider that myth debunked.

The second myth blithely tossed about in the wake of the Parkland school tragedy is that President Trump and the Republicans recklessly made it "easier for people with mental illness to buy guns."  That particular myth refers to the "115th Congress" earlier this year using the Congressional Review Act of 1996 to reverse a last-minute Obama Social Security Administration ruling that certain Social Security recipients should not own guns, as described at nraila.org:

On Tuesday, President Donald J.  Trump signed the repeal of an Obama-era Social Security Administration (SSA) rule that would have resulted in some 75,000 law-abiding beneficiaries losing their Second Amendment rights each year. 

The SSA rulemaking was issued in the waning weeks of Obama's presidency and targeted those receiving disability insurance or Supplementary Security Income based on SSA's listed mental disorders and who were appointed a "representative payee" to help them manage their benefits.  The agency – for the first time in its history – sought to portray these individuals as "mental defectives" who were prohibited from acquiring or possessing firearms under federal law.

As Kyle Sammin at thefederalist.com points out, even the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) opposed the SSA rule as advancing the "harmful stereotype that people with mental disabilities, a vast and diverse group of people, are violent," adding that "the rule automatically conflates one disability-related characteristic, that is, difficulty managing money, with the inability to safely possess a firearm."

Sammin further notes that several mental health and disability rights advocacy groups "joined the ACLU in supporting the Republican bill to overturn the SSA ruling."  He concludes:

None of this sounds like the unhinged lawlessness that Vox and other left-leaning publications attribute to the Trump administration.  Instead, Congress's repeal of the regulation came after consultation with a cross-section of advocacy groups whose missions are to protect a vulnerable group of Americans.  The SSA rule was overboard [sic] and underprotective of our constitutional rights.

So, as Sammin asks, can "Second Amendment opponents" lay the blame for the Parkland school "tragedy at the door of the White House"?  I don't think so.  Let's consider that myth debunked as well.

Two more myths join a long line of gun control myths "that just won't die."

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/02/debunking_more_media_gun_control_myths.html