Liberals hate guns even though they don’t know anything about them. The New York Times promoted a 2A hit piece against the AR-15 with a picture of shotgun shells. Making matters worse, they blamed right-wing owners of these “AR-15 shotguns” for leftist political violence. It’s hard to fail that badly, but the NYT pulled it off effortlessly.
Here’s something a competent editor should have caught:
The AR-15 has become a talisman for some right-wing politicians and voters. “That’s a particularly disturbing trend at a time when violent political rhetoric and actual political violence in the United States are rising,” writes the editorial board. https://t.co/xLqthLEkSA
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 10, 2022
They couldn’t find a stock photo of some .233 rounds?
This is like hyping an expose of the dangers of drag racing with a picture of a 1993 Geo Metro. It’s also the NYT’s way of saying they don’t know anything about guns without actually saying they don’t know anything about guns.
The thing is, there are a couple gun makers like Rock Island Armory who have designed a 12-gauge AR-15, but there’s no way the NYT knows about it. Plus, let’s face it, they’re not common and certainly aren’t something liberals are bitching about.
If you can believe it, the article is just as stupid:
The AR-15 has also become a potent talisman for right-wing politicians and many of their voters. That’s a particularly disturbing trend at a time when violent political rhetoric and actual political violence in the United States are rising.
But the rise in political violence is from the left. They’re the ones attacking Republican campaign volunteers, killing red state voters, and attempting to assassinate conservative SCOTUS Justices. How does rightwing AR-15 shotgun ownership cause a rise in leftist political violence?
The NYT didn’t explain that one, but they did double-down on the idiocy:
A growing number of American civilians have an unhealthy obsession with ‘tactical culture’ and rifles like the AR-15. It’s a fringe movement among the 81 million American gun owners, but it is one of several alarming trends that have coincided with the increase in political violence in this country, along with the spread of far-right extremist groups, an explosion of anti-government sentiment and the embrace of deranged conspiracy theories by many Republican politicians. Understanding how these currents feed one another is crucial to understanding and reversing political violence and right-wing extremism.
There’s around 20 million AR-15s in the hands of U.S. citizens, making it the most popular firearm in the country. That’s not a “fringe movement” it’s mainstream acceptance. And again, responsible gun ownership doesn’t create leftist political violence.
With an article this stupid, you just know the ending had to be a doozy. The NYT’s “solution” for the non-existent problem of AR-15 shotguns causing leftist violence is for right-wing gun owners to voluntarily disarm themselves:
Institutions and individuals — prominent politicians, for instance, and responsible gun owners — could do far more to insist that assault weapons have no place in public spaces, even if they are permitted in many states, where the open carry of firearms is legal. Public condemnation of such displays is a good place to start.
Responsible gun owners don’t even know what the f*ck an “assault weapon” is. They do know that the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the right to keep and bear arms however, and aren’t about to let some leftist rag like the NYT talk them into surrendering their firearms.
