CNN Exploits One Criminal Gun Use, Ignores Thousands of Legal Uses

This past week, CNN looked past thousands of legal gun uses to seize on one criminal gun use that resulted in a January 13th death at a Florida theater.

While Breitbart News feels tremendous sympathy for the family of Chad Oulson–the movie-goer who was shot and killed by a retired police officer after an argument over texting in the theater–we also believe the exploitation of his death for the purposes of gun control is unacceptable.

On November 8, Breitbart News reported various studies and surveys that estimate defensive gun uses (DGUs) at more than two thousand a day in America. In other words, the number of lives saved and property protected daily because of guns is tremendous. But a Google search for CNN’s coverage of these defensive gun uses only turns up a July 30, 2012, story by David Frum, admitting that guns can sometimes be used defensively, then contending that gun owners “[live] in a fantasy about the security their guns will bestow.”

On the other hand, a Google search for CNN’s coverage of the retired policeman who shot and killed a fellow movie-goer reveals numerous stories that ran during the last week, claiming Americans “don’t have the ability to go someplace and be as safe as [they] once did” and quoting a movie-goer who is opposed to people carrying a “pistol” to a theater, among other things. 

A mere mention of the congressional study Breitbart News reported, showing that, beginning in 1994, the murder rate plummeted as gun ownership soared was not forthcoming. 

The criminal use of guns–whether in a movie theater or in any other setting–ought to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. But criminal use ought not be exploited to conceal the far more prominent legal DGUs that take place throughout America each day. 

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins