On Wednesday, this audacious headline and image which lumped together law-abiding gun-owners with Islamic terrorists – complete with a gun superimposed over the ISIS flag – appeared on the front page of the New York Daily News:
Today's front page. .@NRA's Sick Jihad: https://t.co/1PWbotWvLA Terror raid in Paris: https://t.co/ZcBeFq2zAA pic.twitter.com/2ctOa0xthb
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) November 18, 2015
The sensational headline read, “Over 2,000 suspects on terror watch list have legally bought firearms in the U.S. because gun nuts are blocking laws that would end this madness.”
Inside the cover, the Daily News asserted that the NRA opposed gun laws proposed by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) because the American gun-rights organization wants firearms in the hands of terrorists. The editorial board practically frothed at the mouth spewing hatred for the NRA, calling them “radical fundamentalists” whose “extremism is so intense” that they arm “potentially violent radicals” with their “terrifying” agenda.
The laws in question would ban those on the FBI’s terror suspect watchlist from purchasing guns. The Daily News got their numbers from a Washington Post article posted yesterday.
The NRA has worked tirelessly to protect the second amendment rights of suspected terrorists https://t.co/2Xi9vw6ric
— Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) November 16, 2015
Regardless, what the Daily News didn’t do, was explain why many innocent civilians end up on the FBI’s terror suspect watchlist to begin with. Do they know, for example, that Weekly Standard writer and Fox News contributor Stephen Hayes is on the FBI’s list, simply for taking a one-way flight to Turkey last July?
I suspect I made the list b/c of concerns about #Syria. I took a one-way flight to Turkey in late July (return flight was Athens). @DHSgov
— Stephen Hayes (@stephenfhayes) September 23, 2014
He isn’t alone. There are many stories of innocent civilians who get stopped each year during traffic stops or when traveling because they share a name with someone on the terror list. Even the Huffington Post points out that could happen to you if you’re just plain unlucky.
Clearly, there’s no perfect system for stopping terrorists. The “gun nuts” at the NRA realize this, and want to make sure innocent civilians can still protect themselves if they are accidentally put on a government list. Their lengthy reasoning for opposing these bills is detailed on their website.
So how does the Daily News respond to that?
“Opposing the measure, the NRA spouts that, thanks to inaccuracies, the 700,000 names on the watchlist includes some law-abiding gun owners. Perhaps, but the King-Feinstein bill would allow people to challenge denials.
Regardless, the NRA zealots are determined to let terror suspects buy guns rather than allow even a momentary infringement on a legitimate buyer’s ability to get a gun right this instant.”
The media’s twisted message about gun-owners spreads far and wide. All three networks and all the leading newspapers have hyped gun violence and bashed the NRA while ignoring the many stories of where guns saved lives.
