A note on the Amazon ads: I've chosen to display current events titles in the Amazon box. Unfortunately, Amazon appears to promote a disproportionate number of angry-left books. I have no power over it at this time. Rest assured, I'm still a conservative.
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Friday, January 25, 2002
In an op-ed piece in the New York Post, the American Enterprise Institute's John R. Lott takes aim at the major media and their treatment of guns.
At last week's shooting at the Appalachian Law School, the shooter was subdued by students after killing the dean of the law school and two other people.
What is so remarkable is that out of 280 separate news stories (from a computerized Nexis-Lexis search) in the week after the event, just four stories mentioned that the students who stopped the attack had guns.
Only two local newspapers (the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Charlotte Observer) mentioned that the students actually pointed their guns at the attacker.
Much more typical was the scenario described by the Washington Post, where the heroes had simply "helped subdue" the killer. The New York Times noted only that the attacker was "tackled by fellow students."
Most in the media who discussed how the attack was stopped said: "students overpowered a gunman," "students ended the rampage by tackling him," "the gunman was tackled by four male students before being arrested," or "Students ended the rampage by confronting and then tackling the gunman, who dropped his weapon."
In all, 72, stories described how the attacker was stopped without mentioning that the student heroes had guns.
I remember that the gunman was stopped by students who had guns, but I also remember only hearing or reading that in one place. I don't remember where that was. It's troubling that a very important fact was left out of so many news stories, and the national discussion of gun control that it might have sparked never occurred.
*UPDATE* While getting my hair cut Saturday morning I had an opportunity to look at People magazine. Its report on the law school story also neglected to mention that the students who subdued the shooter had guns.
10:59 PM
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