Univision has joined the establishment media's laser focus on gun control in the wake of last week's horrendous school shooting in Parkland, Florida. This also means that Univision is spreading willful misinformation in furtherance of gun control.
An oft-cited talking point is that President Donald Trump revoked a rule instituted by President Barack Obama, which barred the mentally ill from purchasing firearms. Here's correspondent Lourdes Del Río, as she struggles to make that point, as aired on Noticiero Univision on Friday, February 16, 2018:
LOURDES DEL RIO, UNIVISION CORRESPONDENT: Well, the difference in the handling of this gun control situation has, of course, made its way to the White House. Last February, President Trump removed an, uh...proposition passed by, -or rule, I should say- which President Obama put forth, which allowed for (background) checks with a more...uh...that a person with mental problems could be much more thoroughly screened when requesting a firearm. It's worth noting that this problem continues to heat up and that now, some time ago, President Trump has arrived here, to Florida, where he is now at a hospital. Apparently, he will be there with his wife, he is also joined with...precisely, by Marco Rubio and they will be visiting with some of the victims. We'll be watching. Back to you.
The "Trump let crazy people buy guns" is a convenient talking point, but does not survive the basic scrutiny of a Google search. The truth, which Univision has so far neglected to report, is that the Obama administration compelled the Social Security Administration to declare the act of having designated payee a mentally disorder, and to then report these beneficiaries to the National Instant Criminal Background (NICS) database as being prohibited from possessing a firearm. But the gun grab was so overbroad that even the ACLU, from the tip of the spear of the "Resistance", jumped in and opposed it. Here's what they said when the rule was repealed:
The thousands of Americans whose disability benefits are managed by someone else range from young people with depression and financial inexperience to older adults with Down syndrome needing help with a limited budget. But no data — none — show that these individuals have a propensity for violence in general or gun violence in particular.
To the contrary, studies show that people with mental disabilities are less likely to commit firearm crimes than to be the victims of violence by others.
Data show that young, white men are most likely to be mass shooters — the issue that politicians care about most, despite accounting for a tiny fraction of gun violence. And men under 35 commit most murders. Shall we enter all young men into the national database? The statistical correlation with gun violence would be stronger.
The ACLU and 23 national disability groups did not oppose this rule because we want more guns in our community. This is about more than guns. Adding more innocent Americans to the National Instant Criminal Background database because of a mental disability is a disturbing trend — one that could be applied to voting, parenting or other rights dearer than gun ownership. We opposed it because it would do little to stem gun violence but do much to harm our civil rights.
It's bad enough that Del Río didn't know what she was talking about as she stuttered about Trump letting the insane buy guns during a live hit. What she thought she knew was fake, and Univision was fine with pushing that in furtherance of a corporate agenda item second only, perhaps, to immigration, and in the immediate aftermath of a horrific tragedy. Shameful.
