Bloggers often accuse the mainstream media of spinning issues to fit their agenda, and with very good reason, especially on the contentious issue of gun control. However, I do believe this takes spin to an entirely new level -- and, ironically enough, it comes from a blogger! (h/t: the lovely and gracious Nicki)
What about the second amendment rights of Americans? Well, what about them? That wasn't the focus of this conference...
Well, if you read the news reports about the conference from any kind of mainstream media outlet, of course it wasn't! If you read the news reports from the MSM, you'd see snakes like Kofi Annan and Rebecca Peters protesting that they didn't want to take Americans' guns away.
If you solely relied on the news reports from the MSM, it's not so likely you'd see Rebecca Peters saying, "I think American citizens should not be exempt from the rules that apply to the rest of the world. At the moment there are no rules applying to the rest of the world. That’s what we’re working for. American citizens should have guns that are suitable for the legitimate purposes that they can prove," as if we had a burden to some central authority to prove why we needed a firearm.
If you solely relied on the MSM for an eye on this conference, you might not have caught the Peters quote from her debate with Wayne LaPierre: "Yes, I believe that semiautomatic rifles and shotguns have no legitimate role in civilian hands. And not only that, handguns have no legitimate role in civilian hands."
If you solely relied on the MSM for information about this conference and some of the requirements Peters and her den of vipers wanted to impose on us, you might well have found no mention of what they point to as "effective laws," and the example the rest of the world should follow (PDF alert!):
Elements of effective national gun laws: an example from
Australia
• Gun ownership should require a licence obtained by meeting a
series of criteria which include a minimum age, a clean criminal
record, undergoing safety training and establishing a genuine
reason for needing to own a gun.
• When deciding whether to grant or renew a licence, police can take into account all relevant circumstances.
• People convicted of assault are banned from having a gun licence for five years.
• People subject to domestic violence restraining orders are banned from having a gun licence for five years.
• People with domestic violence restraining orders against them are subject to compulsory seizure of all their guns.
• All guns must be registered at time of sale or transfer and when the licence is renewed.
• There is a 28-day waiting period to buy a gun.
• ‘Genuine reason’ must be proved separately for each gun, effectively imposing a limit on the number that any one person can own.
• Guns cannot be bought or sold privately but only through licensed dealers or the police.
Let us, once again, look at the Second Amendment:
"A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
--Waiting periods.
--Requirements to submit "a genuine reason" for owning a gun.
--Licenses granted at the whim of the police, aka "The Only Ones..."
--Registration.
--Limits on the number and types of firearms non-state actors may own.
--Proof required for taking ownership of a firearm, probably subject to denial for any reason.
I don't know about y'all, but that sounds a hell of a lot like infringement of Americans' Second Amendment rights to me, to say nothing of everyone's basic human right of self-defense, and the evisceration of the presumption of innocence. (Of course, one could argue that last thing went out the door as the ATF Form 4473 came in...) But make no mistake; this conference was a strike, not just at Americans' rights, but at the rights of everyone to defend themselves from those who might oppress them, whether it be a petty thief or a tyrannical government. And anyone who would say otherwise isn't paying attention.
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