Following the recent terror attack in San Bernardino, California, the national debate on gun control has been reignited and shamelessly fueled by mainstream media. CBS put together a slide show illustrating what it says are the “30 most heavily armed states”.
However, there is just one problem with CBS’s data. Instead of using something like background check numbers (which are a decent proxy for gun sales), CBS looked at the number of registered National Firearms Act items in each state.
.@CBSNews used #NFA items as total firearms/state. Proof the #MSM is clueless about firearms and regs. https://t.co/uS6kmTMoGk … via
— Billy Johnson (@AmidstTheNoise) December 9, 2015
For those that don’t know, NFA items include machine guns (real, fully automatic machine guns, not semi-autos that the media often confuses for machine guns), short barreled rifles/shotguns, silencers/suppressors, and a couple of other odds and ends.
While the data they used is technically correct (those are the right NFA numbers for those states), they don’t mean what CBS thinks they mean.
@Jimhollingswor2 @CBSEveningNews hey CBS you will NEVER get our guns never so give it up
— Right Minded Pilot (@PociusMichael) December 11, 2015
Florida comes in at number 30, with 10.2 guns for every 1,000 residents. That’s a staggering 199,828 registered firearms dispersed among 19,552,860 people.
Americans have more to fear from American nuts with guns than from terrorism. Get real America! CBS Poll
— KMS (@kms_sf) December 11, 2015
It may seem odd that one of the nation’s largest news sources could make such a blatant and obvious error. However, mistakes like this often happen in the gun debate, much to the chagrin of gun owners. Gun owners often cite anti-gun advocates’ lack of knowledge on firearms and firearms law as a major reason that it’s hard to have a discussion on the subject.
How do you feel about this bias reporting? Share this story and let you friends know what’s going on. Someone needs to be held accountable for this blatant attempt to create a false narrative.
h/t – Palm Beach Post, Examiner
