CNN’s British political pundit Piers Morgan has been making a case for gun control in the US and by so doing has been making statistical claims and comparisons between Great Britain and the USA to bolster his argument.
This week on Piers Morgan Tonight, his weekly program on CNN the Cable News Network, Morgan invited talk radio host and conspiracy theory icon Alex Jones onto the program to discuss gun control. The word discuss however would be an incredibly inaccurate definition of the dialogue that took place between Jones and Morgan. The colloquy that ensued must have had Morgan twisting and turning, jumping and shouting with glee on the inside, though you wouldn’t notice it on his calm and determined face.
Jones on the other hand came unhinged.
Regardless of whether you agree with Piers Morgan or Alex Jones or land somewhere in between, it’s important that facts be wielded correctly and in context. Neither Morgan nor Jones did that during this spectacle but Morgan has been peddling numbers and making statistical comparisons that simply don’t exist in fact. Jones facts got lost in the hysterical outburst that ensued where we were all left “rubber necking as if witnessing a terrible accident on the freeway.
FBI crime statistics which have recently come out for 2011 refute Piers Morgan’s argument, show his numbers to be low and incorrect, and more importantly show incontestably that guns do not cause violent crime, unstable people with evil and violent intentions use guns or any other weapon as tools to inflict their evil intentions.
Ben Swann, a broadcast journalist at Fox 19 WXIX in Cincinnati, Ohio, took Morgan to task on his numbers, comparisons, and insinuations on his Reality Check segment during a recent local newscast.
The numbers don’t lie but they can be cherry picked and used to mislead. Whether by intent, lazy fact checking, or ignorance, Piers Morgan is misleading his audience and bolstering an argument that isn’t based in fact. I don’t have a problem with Morgan’s opinion that some weapons should be banned. I do have a problem when he or anyone else misleads their audience and continually pegs the BS meter with false information.
Whether we, as US citizens, should support a ban on certain guns and/or gun accessories is a debate worth having but it must be won on its merits with all evidence laid out for all to see, digest, and then fall on a side. I believe in that scenario and when done with integrity the anti-gun argument falls apart and its non-solution position becomes self-evident.
The reasons for ratification of the second amendment of the United States constitution have not gone away. They are as valid today as they were the day it was ratified. A nation of citizens who cannot defend themselves are ripe for government overthrow and enslavement by tyrants. History has proven it over and over again. An armed citizenry does give pause to those who would consider such action and I believe prevents it from occurring.
Until all evil is eradicated from the face of the earth, the gun will be the determining factor as to whether men and women will remain free or lose their liberties and be ruled by an iron fist.
As Mr. Swann concluded in his report, “Violent crime is not the result of a gun or any tool, it is the result of the heart of men and women.”
Amen!
