TheTrace.org Archives -

What Is This World Coming To?

A couple of weeks ago I got two emails on the same day from reporters at Bloomberg’s TheTrace.org asking about a blog post I had written. While I did give them a clarification on one item, I kinda ignored the request to put them in touch with my sources on the NRA Board of Directors.

Then yesterday, a friend sent me a link to an article in Slate.com regarding Marion Hammer’s condescending email about those purged from their committees on the NRA Board. It included this paragraph.

One day later, NRA board member and Soldier of Fortune magazine founder and publisher Robert K. Brown reported on Facebook that he had been removed from the Grassroots Development Committee, the Veteran’s Affairs Committee, and the Legislative Policy Committee. “[Nobody] in the NRA power structure has the guts to explain to me why this was done,” Brown wrote at the time. “NRA leadership lacks any moral character and basically falls under the label of loathsome toads.” (Blogger John Richardson reported that Brown had maintained assignments on the Publications Committee and the Special Contributions Committee. Brown declined to comment to Slate, but said he is a board member.)

What the hell is this world coming to when those with paid jobs in the media have to reach out to us citizen journalists and/or quote our work? I think it would amuse the late Mike Vanderboegh given the work that he, David Codrea, and Dave Workman did in exposing Project Gunwalker aka Operation Fast and Furious.

No Mention That It Was A Gun Free Zone

The chutzpah of the gun prohibitionists is certainly on display here. The Brady Campaign is highlighting an article from Mike Bloomberg’s newest media property TheTrace.org. The article says the abortive terrorist attack on the Amsterdam to Paris train which was stopped by three young Americans, a British businessman, and an undisclosed Frenchman shows that you don’t need guns.

Evan DeFillipis and Devin Hughes say the fact that the people who stopped the attack were unarmed validates data from the latest research by Harvard’s David Hemenway.

In the wake of mass shootings, Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association (NRA) frequently returns to a familiar soundbite: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.” The corollary of which is that unarmed civilians are helpless “fish in a barrel.” But the heroes on that French train clearly demonstrated otherwise — and the outcome of that active-shooter incident is just the most recent in a list of examples refuting an argument that has become central to the push for expanded gun rights.

Defillipis and Hughes, Oklahoma-based investment advisors who blog at Armedwithreason.com, go on to say that Hemenway’s “research” shows that having a firearm does not make a person safer nor give you any advantage in protecting property.

What they don’t discuss is why these incidents always seem to happen in gun-free zones. I guess that would not support their narrative.

As an aside and it has nothing to do with the article, how narcissistic do you have to be to put your SAT scores in your LinkedIn profile? There are some things you just can’t make up.