The Aurora Shooting: Tragedy Compounded by Falsehoods
Posted on July 25, 2012 by Ben Froland in Articles
When I first heard about the shooting in Aurora, Colorado last week, my first thought was to pray for the victims and their families. I could only imagine the pain both physical and emotional for those directly affected. 12 people killed and 58 others wounded. My God. My heartbreak for the people savaged in that theater then turned to anger at the individual who had committed the terrible crime. What kind of disgusting coward does this to innocent men, women and children who went to a movie to see larger than life heroism?
Unfortunately there are a good number of individuals out there who misplace their focus during these trying times. For some it is blind ideological ignorance. They are unwilling to look at facts because it doesn’t support their worldview. For others it is even worse than that. They know what the facts are, but they willfully omit them and/or replace them with their own narrative. This is the crowd that never wants to let a crisis go to waste.
This combination of ignorance and purposeful social engineering immediately fostered numerous falsehoods and factual errors about the shooting. We, as a country, were also robbed of our time to mourn by opportunists pushing their political agendas.
Here are just a few examples of the lies and subterfuge:
Of note, this was the FIRST comment that Morgan had about the tragedy in Aurora. More significantly, he never once offered prayers or condolences for the victims and their families in his timeline. What a parasite. A pompous, preening foreigner taking advantage of our American liberties while seeking to eliminate them. Disgusting.
Then there was this jewel from Larry King:
Sorry Larry. Despicable shooter James Holmes used a Smith and Wesson manufactured AR-15, not a “machine gun.” The Federal government clearly defines machine guns as being capable of firing fully automatic with a single pull of the trigger. The rifle in question is a simple semi-automatic variety and functions no differently from many hunting rifles, which the AR-15 is for thousands of sportsmen. Pull the trigger once, it shoots once.
The Associated Press, unsurprisingly, continued the amped up rhetoric by referring to the weapon as a semi-automatic “assault rifle.” Much like a machine gun, a true assault rifle must be capable of firing fully automatically. The term comes from the German WWII era Sturmgewehr 44, which literally means Storm(or Assault) Rifle Model of 1944. It was a moniker given to it by Hitler himself and a term leftists continue to demonize firearms with. Unfortunately this is a designation that conservatives allowed to be applied to perfectly legal firearms in various pieces of legislation, such as Bill Clinton’s infamous “Crime Bill,” so while erroneous, it is unlikely to go away.
Then we have someone who fancies themselves an expert in body armor:
Actually this is just a regurgitation of a New York Times article. (shocker) The body armor angle is supposed to indicate to supporters of lawful concealed carry that their weapons would have been useless.
First of all, this is pure hogwash. Body armor ranges from soft and lightweight Level II-A up to the extremely bulky Level IV ceramic and ballistic steel plate armor. Armor in many cases is NOT rated for taking multiple strikes and even if the bullet is stopped, the wearer still suffers painful blunt trauma from bullets slamming into their body at over 1000 feet per second. This blunt trauma can include broken bones, internal bleeding and even death. Regardless of the type of armor worn, there are always areas left unprotected such as the head, arms, sides, and legs. A final Achilles Heel for body armor is it’s inability to stop pointed weapons such as knives. No body armor is truly bulletproof.
The above is all moot however, because it doesn’t appear that Holmes was even wearing body armor! It’s now being reported that he purchased “a folding knife and gun magazine pouches including an M-16 magazine pouch and an urban assault vest” online for a grand total of $300. The only “urban assault vest” listed on on the company’s website is this model which has no provisions for body armor at all. If this is truly what Holmes was wearing, it was essentially the vest equivalent of cargo pants.
The company that sold the items is now the victim of threats and further lies:
In the wake of the tragedy, we have done our best to cooperate with the media and law enforcement agencies by passing on any relevant information. We have since been inundated with countless phone calls, emails and interview requests. Much of this communication has been quite hostile and threatening in nature. We have been falsely accused of selling Mr. Holmes firearms and ammunition over the Internet illegally without conducting the mandated background checks. Some members of our customer relations team have been brought to tears by people insisting that we have “blood on our hands.”
All of the deceptions above are bad enough, but adding to the problem are “conservatives” who are unwilling or uninformed and do nothing to combat them. They fall into traps such as “that rifle has no sporting purpose” and proceed to argue in favor of the hunting or target use of the firearm. Others simply want nothing to do with the topics of God, guns or gays as if these shouldn’t be significant positions held by conservatives. Shame on their cowardice.
Get out and proclaim the truth:
- The police do a fine job, but when seconds count, they will be there in a matter of minutes.
- It is personal liberty and individual responsibility, including concealed carry, that would lessen tragedies such as Aurora.
- Increased government regulations are the reason we see more shootings like this, not the solution to avoiding them.
- The Second Amendment is about keeping government in check and preserving freedom, not hunting and target shooting.
- Evil people will always exist and use whatever means they can to harm the innocent.
May God comfort those who are suffering in Aurora, Colorado.