Found: One Troll

Oh wait, I don’t have to wonder. For those who do, ABC ran a helpful piece this evening on 20/20 titled “If I Only Had A Gun.” Jeff Soyer asked readers to watch and report, and so I did. I Tivo’d the show so I could pause it and rewind when necessesary. I also took notes, which I will post here with further comment and sources as necessary.  Times are in minutes (h:mm format) from the start of the program including commercials, as reported by my Tivo.

This is going to be a long one. Detailed notes on the show after the jump.

• 0:00 – Intro. Lots of images of EBRs and handguns. No images of “safe” guns.
• 0:01 – Jonathan Lowy (Identified with name on screen) of the Brady Bunch uses the same peanut butter quote in the show as Paul Helmke used on his blog, as below:

“About 30,000 people a year in this country die from gun violence, about 80 a day, 32 by homicide – the same number who died at Virginia Tech two years ago this month.In the space of four months, up to nine Americans died as a result of bacteria-laden peanut butter crackers, and the government quickly took action.” – Paul Helmke, Brady Campaign.

• 0:01 – Some pro-gun guy I don’t recognize, who is not identified (Via Matt in comments, I have learned that this is Philip Van Cleave, head of the Virginia Citizens Defense League), cites studies which show the presence or more law-abiding gun owners reduces crime, not increases it. (ed. -  This is the last we will see of any pro-gun viewpoints in the show.)
• 0:02 – Diane Sawyer appears for the first time on camera. She states ” This is not going to be a debate about the right to own a gun.” Somehow, I believe her. There will be no debate.
• 0:03 – A cop is shown who states that he believes video games contribute to the mass shooting craze. Some scenes from a very old 3rd-person shooter game are shown. Despite my video gaming pedigree, I do not know what it was.
• 0:04 – ABC conducts a study on armed civilian response during an active shooter situation in a classroom. The classroom looks like a small lecture room with two rows of elevated seating, stadium style. Sawyer does mention at the outset that none of the college students participating in the study have formal defensive firearm training.
• 0:05 – Montage of students training with paint simunitions – very cool. Sawyer (as narrator) explains that the students have received less training than “half” of states require to issue a CCW permit. She does not, however, explain what the training was. The clip makes it seem like the received little training, however they perform well enough that I would suspect they received at least a half day of firearm instruction, probably more.
• 0:05 – Jimmy the student shown carrying concealed under a heavy sweatshirt. He is the first subject for the “study.” He is placed in the classroom with a lecturer, other “students” (revealed by narration to be police officers or ABC staff), and safety gear. Jimmy’s first action is to ask the “student” next to him if she is packing. She replies in the negative, and he advises her that he is packing. Smart. Lecturer asks students to don safety gear, ostensibly as part of the training class. Active shooter breaks in and Jimmy is unable to draw his sidearm from under his concealing sweatshirt. Looks like he needed more practice. Jimmy is shot and “killed” before he can draw. Jimmy did not seek concealment behind his desk. Sawyer trots out the canard that Jimmy could have been disarmed by the active shooter, his own gun used against the other students after he falls. The active shooter is a police officer and firearms instructor, trained and experienced in shooting while moving and recognizing threats. Not a realistic simulation, it seems to me. Edited to add: I just watched this footage again at Shangrila Towers, and when the officer is shooting at the student he pauses to let a woman run in front of him, then continues to shoot when his line of fire to the student is clear. This is visible at about 3:10 in this youtube video. What kind of active shooter has that kind of control and concern for bystanders?
• 0:06 – Sawyer states that even cops can’t handle guns safely! ONOZ! Video is shown of the DEA Agent (Mr. Only One himself) who shot himself in the leg while demonstrating gun safety with an “empty” Glock. Sawyer identifies him as a police officer. It is implied that if cops can’t be trusted with firearms, no one can.
• 0:07 – Danielle, our next subject for the “study”, takes concealment, draws her weapon and fires, hitting the active shooter in the leg, while she is shot in the head. In my humble opinion, there’s a chance she would have stopped the shooter. A chance worth taking.
• 0:08 – Some cops explain the value of training and the difficulty of acting under stress. Good advice here.
• 0:09 – Chris, the next subject, is described as a “gun enthusiast” with over 100 hours of gun experience on the range. When the shooter enters he immediately dives under the desk, but is also unable to draw from under the sweatshirt. He is shot many times.
• 0:10 – More from cops about the perishibility of training and the importance of training in dealing with loss of fine motor control and tunnel vision. No mention of where this training is available to civilians, it’s implied by this exclusion that only police officers can obtain such experience.
• 0:17 – A bit on kids with machine guns and the 8 year-old child who was killed at a gun range when he was allowed to handle a weapon that he could not control. Sympathy for the father but no deconstruction of the actual event, implies that guns and kids don’t mix.
• 0:19 – ABC conducts another “study” where children play with real firearms after watching the NRA’s Eddie Eagle videos. No mention of how thorough their instruction was. Did they go through the whole program or did they only watch a video? How committed to the lesson were their instructors? These things matter. Also, the guns that they played with? Hidden in a box of toys. Real subtle there, ABC. “Oh, look. We put some guns in with toys and kids treated them like. . . toys! The NRA is bad, folks.”
• 0:20-25 – Another ABC “study.” I’m going to run out of my quotation mark quota at this rate. Some college kids are invited to a garage to clean it out for the owner, who is actually a producer at ABC. The crew leaves two guns, a Glock and a S&W revolver, in a drawer. There are live rounds with the guns, but the firearms themselves are disabled. The kids pull a number of classic idiots with guns stunts, including looking down the barrel of a loaded firearm, fingers all over triggers, and basically violating all four rules of gun safety; sometimes all of them at once. Clearly, since these morons don’t know how to safely handle a gun, neither does anyone else. After all, they were raised post-Columbine! They have video games! They’re gun experts! Excuse me, I think I need to vomit.
• 0:25 – A kid who killed another child with a firearm is profiled, then asks Obama to “lock up all the guns” and “take them away.” I respectfully disagree, kid.
• 0:29-35 – David Weaver lives in Pohokee, FL and is unable to play outside at night due to gang violence. The gangs are well-armed and apparently have no qualms about showing off their gats for the nice news people. A lot of semi-autos are displayed, and surprisingly few cheap Brycos. It is revealed that the gang members use minors, 14-16 years old, to purchase their firearms through a cut-out, and the price quoted for a pistol is $60. At a price that low, the firearm is almost certainly stolen. Let’s count the crimes: Theft, trafficing in stolen goods, minor purchasing a firearm, straw purchase of firearm. That’s five four and I’m not even a LEO or  a lawyer. I bet you can think of more. But remember: more laws will help. Do it again, only harder. David implores Obama to do something to help Pohokee. Is it too much to ask them to help themselves?
• 0:40 – Omar goes to the gun show. Omar’s sister was killed by the psycho who perpetrated the VT massacre. ABC gives him $5000 cash to buy firearms at the show. He buys a Glock from a private seller in the parking lot for $450. Somehow, I don’t think this is the place that those homeboys in the previous segment are getting their gats. ABC pushes the Gun Show Loophole fallacy here.
• 0:42 – ABC admits that the VA Tech Shooter did NOT buy his firearms from a private seller or at a gun show. He purchased them at a legal FFL’s storefront, and completed all the requisite paperwork and background checks. The NICS system failed, not the gun store, and not a private citizen who sold a prohibited possessor a firearm. The government failed, as it often does. The narrator mentions the gun show loophole again.
• 0:43 – ZOMG A BABY AT A GUNSHOW! WTF?! Oh wait, statistically, he’s in no danger at all. Just a healthy family outing. Strangly, ABC does not push the family bonding angle.
• 0:43 – Omar buys some semi-automatic AK clone. He also buys two “shotguns”. Psst, one of them is a lever-action rifle. Don’t tell ABC. He also buys some sort of semi-auto EBR. Pants shitting hysterics ensue.
• 0:44 – For the love of John Moses Browning, ABC mentions the gun show loophole again. They cite the ATF that gun shows are a significant source of crime guns, but have no hard numbers. They beg the excuse that gun show sales are untraceable. ABC bemoans the fact that Virginia’s state legislature has voted two years in a row to keep private firearm sales legal (except they refer to the gun show loophole again). Good for VA.
• 0:45 – ABC calls the NRA to talk about the “gun show loophole” (AGAIN!). The NRA declines to comment. I have no idea how much they spoke to the NRA for this special, but through the entire program not a single identified NRA representative speaks.
• 0:46 – They took the guns from the gun show to the police station, and turned them in. They probably could have turned them around for a profit. Fools. Also, Mayors Against Illegal Guns gets a shout out from Diane Sawyer at this point.
• 0:51 – A police officer points out that even if you have a gun, shooting might not be your best choice. I completely agree, but shouldn’t we have the option?
• 0:52 – Back to the classroom shooter “study.” The firearms instructor points out that due to tunnel vision, in one scenario there was a second active shooter that the defending student did not notice. Also, one student nearly shot an innocent bystander. The instructor correctly advises the students that in a defensive shooting situation they should shoot to disable, to stop the threat, not to wound.
• 0:55 – More warnings about hitting bystanders. Rule 4, people. A police officer states that for the non-LEO responding to a shooting or other situation where you are justified in using deadly force, the responding citizen is responsible for every shot.
• 0:57 – Diane Sawyer claims that in researching this program, they were unable to find any reliable or non-contradictory studies that could be construed as pro-civilian gun ownership or pro-concealed carry. I contend that they didn’t try very hard. The facts are there in all their digital glory: civilians with guns use their sidearms defensively, successfully, at least 1.5 million times per year according to the USDOJ. Bans and other restrictions on firearms, even when the bans target so-called “assault weapons,” do not reduce firearm homicide or crime in any measurable fashion. Shall-issue CCW laws at worst do not increase violent crime rates and at best have a deterrent effect on criminals, reducing crime. All of these facts are in the linked studies, which I found in less than five minutes of searching. You’re welcome, ABC.

Some closing thoughts on the show:

• The bias is clear. There was one pro-gun statement in the entire program, during the intro, from a man who was unidentified and whose facts were uncited. Immediately before him, we had a Brady Bunch representative who was identified by name, along with his organization, spouting anti-gun rhetoric.
• A lot of the points made by the police officers in the program, the majority of whom I doubt are actually anti-gun, are valid. Armed citizens should consider the value of training, especially under stress. They should absolutely consider the consequences of arming themselves, and carrying arms daily. Armed citizens must be conscious of the risks and benefits of their actions, and consider shoot-no-shoot scenarios. And then, having considered all the factors, citizens should arm themselves if they so desire. It’s too bad the good advice from most of the officers was drowned out by ABC’s agenda.
• There was no mention of any civilian firearm self-defense schools such as Gunsite, Front Sight, Thunder Ranch, or Blackwater. It was implied by omission of data that all gun owners are untrained, unprepared, and unwilling to use lethal force to defend themselves and others. It was also implied that all gun owners who carry weapons in public are a danger to themselves and others. This is a demonstrably untrue implication.
• There was no emphasis on the laws broken by active shooters in the commission of their crimes, and no acknowledgement that there is no evidence that strict gun control prevents mass murderers from carrying out their crimes. There was no coverage of existing gun laws at all.
• There was no coverage of the process involved in purchasing a gun through an FFL dealer. There was no examination of the 4473/NICS process and no mention of what constitutes a prohibited possessor, or even that some citizens are legally barred from owning firearms at all.
• My inital impression was right. There was no debate in this program. It was a completely one-sided, PSH-ridden, GFW-run hit-piece on firearms owners.

Updates:

Both John the Texaner and Caleb watched and reported as well. Both of them have great dissections of the “active shooter study.” John the Texaner joins the Daily Reads list.

TXGunGeek has a post as well.

David T. Hardy and Sensibly Progressive have more on the active shooter study, Sensibly Progressive has a lot more.

Sebastian and VSSA have more.

Holy crap it’s a Tamalanche! Thanks for visiting all, feel free to poke around.