by Diane Sawyer led off ABC’s World News last night with a story that is claiming that cops are undergunned when facing criminals. According to the visuals in the story shown below, it is cops and their Glock 22s versus violent criminals armed with AKs and ARs. Diane introduces the story using buzzwords like “mow down”, “staggering numbers”, and “high powered guns”.
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The story by Pierre Thomas featured a recent shooting in Ogden, Utah that left one police officer dead and five wounded. The shooting involved a special drug enforcement team serving a warrant on a suspect who opened fire on them with an AK-47. His father said in other reports that he had PTSD.
Thomas says that cops are often facing career criminals who are willing to shoot it out rather than to go back to prison and that they are using “assault rifles” which can be bought a “virtually any gun store, online, or through a vast black market.”
The insinuation that career felons Joe Bob, An’twan, and Paco can walk into a gun store and buy anything is false. Every gun sale made or delivered through a FFL requires a background check by the FBI but that is never mentioned. Moreover, while you can purchase a firearm “online”, it still must be delivered to you at a local FFL who will do the background check. As to the vast black market, this is where criminals get their guns. It is illegal for them to possess these guns and illegal for them to buy them so why does anyone presume to think one more law would stop them.
AR-15s or “patrol rifles” are becoming almost a standard issue firearm in many police departments. Moreover, virtually every patrol car still carries a 12 gauge riot gun which is very effective in close quarters encounters. Of course, none of this was mentioned in the ABC report.
The only rationale I can see for this story is to build a case for a new assault weapon ban. If it was just a story about cops getting killed in a raid, that is all they would have featured. However, Pierre Thomas went well beyond that, Diane Sawyer led off with an introduction filled with emotion-filled buzzwords, and it was the lead story on the newscast. I have no doubt we will see more and more stories like this throughout the year. I just wish they would take time to point out the obvious stuff like how it is already illegal for a felon to possess not just an AK but any firearm. That really is wishful thinking on my part.
Or obvious stuff like the fact that twice as many people are beaten to death each year than shot to death with rifles of any type. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl08.xls
And as for their "Spike" in cops being shot, it's not true. It's the age old story. Don't look at the long term trend, take advantage of a single good year to compare it to the next, relatively normal year.
http://ncguns.blogspot.com/2011/10/updated-more-officers-killed-in-line-of.html
You can see that there was a seriously good year in 2009, and by comparison, 2010 looked awful. What no one tells you is that 72, the number of non-accidental police deaths, is the median number of officers killed in all years back to 1992.
When the FBI data for 2011 comes out I will update the post, but unless they had more than 84 cops killed, it won't even be a record year.
According to ODMP
http://www.odmp.org/search/year?year=2011
the number of cops killed by gunfire was 65. That's still one less than 2007, and absolutely NOT a spike of 20% over the year before, 59. That's barely 10%, not 20%.
The entire operation is designed to distract us from the important issue. Cop killers are vastly more likely to be convicted criminals. We know that trying to control criminals is basically futile. Aside from putting them in jail or killing them, there's not much we can do. So like all good little statists, they start in on us instead. We have to give up our guns. We have to accept limits on our behavior. As if controlling the law abiding was the problem!
The story even went so far as to blame us for making criminals more desperate! They are more likely to shoot it out with the cops instead of facing the longer prison sentences handed out to repeat offenders. Well who is responsible for those terms? Us. We push for greater punishment, they respond by shooting it out with the cops. The unstated argument is that the prison sentences are too long.
I need a transcript of this video. I could basically fisk it from start to finish.
John,
Just to pick a nit, I've not seen any official source naming the weapon the suspect used … what I've seen is that 'witnesses' thought the gunfire 'sounded' like AK-47 fire.
Hmmm, sounds like ABC doesn't care if Obama gets reelected. Raising anxiety about this issue is not going to help him.
@Packetman: Good point. I listened to the whole report last night and then looked for the video. Unlike most of the news, they didn't post it until today. I then just scanned thru it.
Diane Sawyer led off with an introduction filled with emotion-filled buzzwords.
Because that is all they have. While we have facts and figures on our side. The Bradyites and all of their bastard cousins are loosing, they just refuse to face the fact.
This has been flying around for a few months, and a guy named Dylan Baxter really drove it home. When the anti's were carping about a 20% increase in LEO firearms deaths he went to the source and found that LEO deaths from each individual cause (traffic accidents etc) were each up around 20%. Clearly we need more gun control to stop the maniacs from running cops over with their SUV…
Everywhere I've read about it this guy served honorably in Germany, so PTSD seems unlikely. His folks say he owned a handgun and a hunting rifle which is still at their house.
The parents have not been allowed to visit their son in the hospital.
This raid stinks to high heaven. I would be surprised if the cops weren't shot by friendly fire.
Really Good Post!!
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