VCDL 60 Minutes Story Analysis

[allingeneral]

The following is from a VCDL VA-ALERT email that I received a few moments ago. This is VCDL's writeup regarding the 60 Minutes story.

Gun Sales: Will The "Loophole" Close?
60 Minutes: Fear Of Tighter Gun Control May Be Contributing To Big Rise In Gun Sales

###########################################################
For those who didn't see the 60 Minutes show yesterday, or for those
who did, but would like to see it again or see some of the additional
footage not shown on television, click here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/ ... econdStory

or here:

http://tinyurl.com/c8zmw9

--

If you compare the 60 Minutes show to the 20/20 show last Friday,
there isn't really a comparison: 20/20 was a reprehensible "hit
piece," plain and simple, showing the media at their very worst.
20/20 had an agenda and didn't want to drift off message by giving
both sides equal time.

60 Minutes, while it had its flaws, did give gun owners pretty fair
coverage. They spent a lot of time researching the issues and came up
with some good questions that I'm glad they asked. As a bonus, they
even asked the antis a tough question about Cho getting his gun from a
licensed dealer and pointing out that gun shows had nothing to do with
what happened at Virginia Tech. The antis aren't used to tough
questions, as they are virtually always treated with kid gloves by the
media.

Colonel Massengill's comments reminds me of why I started laughing
when a reporter last year made a comment about Massengill being on the
pro-gun side. Certainly 60 Minutes didn't make that mistake.

Massengill, during his interview, didn't point out, of course, that
people from other states can buy long guns in Virginia, as long as
their state considers that allowable. Not did he point out that they
might be there to buy things such as ammunition, holsters, or just be
window shopping. This is America and people do cross state lines to
go shopping form time to time.

Omar Samaha, the brother of a murdered student at Virginia Tech, keeps
changing his story on how many guns he bought at the gun show (with
$5,000 given to him by ABC) and other details of that event.

On 60 Minutes and in front of the General Assembly, he says he bought
a dozen guns in a hour. On 20/20 it was 10.

On 20/20, Samaha said he was told by one private seller that for
another $100, Samaha wouldn't have to show any ID. On 60 Minutes,
that amount was now reduced to $15.

Some who saw the show were left with the mistaken impression that
Samaha bought his ten (or was it twelve or ??) guns from dealers and
that it was also a dealer who said he would look the other way on
Samaha not showing his ID for $100 (or was it $15?). It would have
been much better if 60 Minutes had made it crystal clear that the guns
were all bought from private sellers.

It was telling when Lesley Stahl asked Virginia Tech survivor, Lily
Habtu, about how the antis failed to close the "gun show loophole"
when "You had so much going for you. You had the emotion..." Yes,
emotion was the first thing that comes to mind because antis count on
emotional appeal as their main leverage to justify gun control.

One thing that drives me nuts about the segment is that gun
organizations are always referred to as the "gun lobby," while antis
doing the exact same thing, are not. And 60 Minutes fell into that
mindset.

Oh, and there is Senator Feinstein saying that police are outgunned.
Too bad she didn't see the video of police with all kinds of weaponry
responding to some of the recent shootings that were shown just before
her interview. To say the police are outgunned is ridiculous. But,
that's the good Senator for you.

Feinstein then quickly jumps into the anti-gunner's staple: emotion.
She starts talking about the funeral of four officers murdered by a
paroled, illegally armed felon in California.

Ms. Feinstein, gun owners don't like seeing such funerals any more
than you do. But we don't like seeing funerals of regular citizens
who have been murdered by a maniac in a gun-free zone, either.

There was a factual error in the report. 60 Minutes made it sound
like the Clinton Assault Weapon Ban had removed military lookalike
rifles from the market, which is not true. Such guns were actually
cheaper back then than they are currently.

There is a segment on the 60 Minutes web site titled, "Guns and Ammo"
that you might want to watch. Lesley asks me why anyone would need a .
50 BMG rifle...

Finally, when the 60 Minutes crew arrived and look around the show,
they were surprised that it wasn't anything like they expected. I
guess they were looking for gun shows to be some kind of secret club
for gun owners. At first they thought they were onto something. One
of them noticed that everyone attending had some kind of tattoo. Then
they realized that it was only the hand stamp that everyone got when
they purchased a ticket and entered the show.

When they told me about that incident, we all had a good laugh and the
cameras began rolling shortly thereafter.

Thanks to C&E Gun Shows and to Dominion Shooting Range for allowing
their facilities to be used. Two of the C&E owners, Steve and Annette
Elliott, are interviewed in the segment "The Call to Arms" on the 60
Minutes web site.

--

Dave Workman, senior editor of Gun Week and communications Director
for CCRKBA, wrote this article on the show:

http://tinyurl.com/c8zmw9

[Fordmechanic]

My 10 yr old son and I were the first 2 people in line that day and entered the Showplace at 8:59 and y son Alan immediately headed to a familiar dealer who had a 43 Tula SVT40 Tokarev. As we were delighted at finding one, we noticed the camera crew at the entrance, inside the show right at the Henrico officers safety table ( zip ties). Little did I know that my son and I were filmed while I was talking to the dealer and My son Alan was holding the SVT 40, which is a 10 shot semi auto rifle from WW2. When I happened on the 60 min news clip, all I could think of is that "they" got a good shot of some redneck(me) and a 10 year old holding an "assault rifle". Now my son and I have amassed a nice collection of WW1 bolt actions and WW2 bolt and semi's in the past year. We only target shoot at 100 yards and my son is probably more well versed in firearms safety than most adults I know of. But I'm sure somehow that the general public will only see the 10 yr old holding an "assault rifle" and I can think of no ther reason why that 3-4 second clip was ever filmed other than to make that point which is erroneous.

[alby]

Is there really an Ammo shortage like 60 Minutes mentioned? I've not had any problem
getting ammo.

[allingeneral]

Is there really an Ammo shortage like 60 Minutes mentioned? I've not had any problem
getting ammo.

[Fordmechanic]

The .223 and 556 ammo is getting very scarce and the reload tables looked like a stock market pit on a bad day with people waving their money in the air trying to attract attention of the sellers. If you got there early, then you could get ammo, if you got there late, it was all gone. I was there at 8:00 am and could find no .30 carbine to speak of. I was lucky to find one tin of .30-06 HXP greek surplus.

[OakRidgeStars]

Is there really an Ammo shortage like 60 Minutes mentioned? I've not had any problem
getting ammo.

You could at least share your source with the group

The other day, I fired some Yugoslavian made 45ACP ammo. I think it was made with cheese

[alby]

Is there really an Ammo shortage like 60 Minutes mentioned? I've not had any problem
getting ammo.

You could at least share your source with the group

The other day, I fired some Yugoslavian made 45ACP ammo. I think it was made with cheese

My source is just the commentary made by Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes. She mentioned that so many people are
buying ammo in America, for fear of the new administration, that there is supposedly a "National Ammo Shortage".

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4937731n

[allingeneral]

Is there really an Ammo shortage like 60 Minutes mentioned? I've not had any problem
getting ammo.

You could at least share your source with the group

The other day, I fired some Yugoslavian made 45ACP ammo. I think it was made with cheese

My source is just the commentary made by Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes. She mentioned that so many people are
buying ammo in America, for fear of the new administration, that there is supposedly a "National Ammo Shortage".

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4937731n

No, we don't want your source of information - we want your source of AMMO!

There is definitely an ammo shortage right now. Check my site at http://all-in-general.com/ and see how much we DON'T have. The manufacturers can't keep up with demand and that means that my shelves have been empty for over a month.

[OakRidgeStars]

No, we don't want your source of information - we want your source of AMMO!

Correct

[Jericho01]

Is there really an Ammo shortage like 60 Minutes mentioned? I've not had any problem
getting ammo.

In a recent gun show in NoVa, I was hoping buy some .223s as I heard they were getting harder to get. In previews shows, one can always see stacks of ammos of varying calibers on display. This time I saw only one box (20 rounds) made by Winchester, priced at $25.00. I bought it right away thinking that this is probably the only supply I can get. However, as soon as I paid for it, the seller said that he has some more (same brand) and turned around to get them. The question is whereas before you see stacks and boxes of ammo on display, why is it that only one box is on the seller's table? Wonder if he is just creating an artificial shortage so he can demand a higher price just like the rest. Price of .223s used to be below $20.00 per box. Just wondering.

[OakRidgeStars]

My local gun shop sold 1.4 million rounds of .223 and 45acp in 70 minutes. Yes, that's right... one hour and ten minutes to clear out two pallets of PMC plinking ammo

Yes, Virginia, there's an a serious F'n shortage of decent ammo

[Moccasin]

No, we don't want your source of information - we want your source of AMMO!

There is definitely an ammo shortage right now. Check my site at http://all-in-general.com/ and see how much we DON'T have. The manufacturers can't keep up with demand and that means that my shelves have been empty for over a month.

Your shelves were so empty of ammo last time I looked I couldn't even find a rock for my slingshot.

[Fordmechanic]

No, the current administration is going after the ammo manufactures and having primers, ball and powder extremely limited supply. Try to find primers for reloading.....

[VBshooter]

Makes me wonder too,,,I know range ammo here is a lot more $$ than it used to be, can't by a case anymore either,,, Single boxes only

[Vahunter]

Try to find primers for reloading.....

I hear that from all over the country but the local dealer has plenty and wants plenty for them.

[Bob]

I know I haven't been shooting much this year, I hate to burn up a lot of ammo thats hard to get.

[VBshooter]

If you want to see a real feeding frenzy and some serious screwing of people take a look at the ammo auctions at this site,,, http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Browse.asp?Cat=1012,, double prices are not uncommon,, This is the sort of gouging that makes you wonder if the shortage is as bad as its being made out to be in all areas.