February 28, 2015

Interesting poll

Given the noise from the extremists on both sides it is often hard to know how the average person feels about carrying guns in public. This poll probably provides a good idea of how people in the western states feel about the issue. From the Texas Tribune:

"Most Texas voters support the right to carry guns in public, but a large majority would not allow open carry of those weapons with or without licenses, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

Almost a quarter said Texans should never be allowed to carry handguns in public, and only 10 percent said they should always be allowed with no license required."

{Poll was taken this month with a margin of error of 2.83%)

ALLOW TEXANS TO CARRY GUNS IN PUBLIC?

Always allowed, without a license..... 10%
Concealed or open, with license........ 22%
Concealed only, with license............. 45%
Never............................................ 23%

Interesting factoid, "Among Republicans, 6 percent said always and 12 percent said never."

More: "Voters are split when it comes to allowing concealed handguns on state college and university campuses, with 47 percent saying they support guaranteeing the right of faculty, staff and students to carry weapons and 45 percent saying they oppose it. And while 22 percent strongly support the proposal, 32 percent strongly oppose it."

Given that this is Texas, I was surprised at how relatively few said "Always allowed, without a license," and how many of those polled said "Never," especially the 12% of Republicans who said "Never."

February 27, 2015

Emily Got Her Gun

Recently we saw a post here titled "Emily FINALLY Gets Her Gun". It was posted by a pro-gunner and it received 137 replies (at this writing), most of them by pro-gunners.

Emily is Emily Miller, the chief investigative correspondent at WTTG (Fox5) in Washington, DC. She is also a pro-gun activist. WTTG recently admitted this. The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) has pointed out that Emily Miller's pro-gun activism violates the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics which states that journalists should “act independently” by avoiding “conflicts of interest, real or perceived” and “political…activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality.” (http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp) So they have posted a petition for people to sign demanding that Miller be fired as WTTG's chief investigative correspondent, which I signed.

One should know that Emily is a NRA hero, and a hero to at least a few pro-gunners here. I came to the discussion late, post #46, and was surprised to find that the pro-gunners were clueless as to why CSGV wants her fired. Even though they linked to CSGV's petition, evidently they didn't read it. They claimed CSGV wanted to silence Miller, taking away her First Amendment rights. Instead CSGV was pointing out that by acting as a political activist, Emily Miller was violating professional journalist's code of ethics.

Imagine my delight last night to find that Washington Post's Media blogger, Eric Wemple, had just published a blog post about this very subject. (http://wapo.st/1BmuAaV). [He wrote about her activism on February 10 as well (http://wapo.st/1wqZ6dY)]

Yesterday he wrote,

"In an instance of stunning journalistic transparency, WTTG-TV (Fox5) this week disclosed that chief investigative correspondent Emily Miller is a “proponent” for Second Amendment rights. An activist, in other words.

It’s a strange role for any investigative reporter, and its perils surface in a number of statements that Miller has made in recent years."

Wemple then examined the many claims Miller has made to various media outlets about the incident that she says spurred her desire to buy a gun for protection, and compared them to the original police report, and it's pretty obvious that much of what she has told the press doesn't square with the facts, nor does the NRA's video recreation of the crime. This may be par for the course for people who are activists, but it is not the behavior we expect from journalists. CSGV is right, she should be fired. If you agree, consider signing their petition (http://csgv.org/action/tell-wttg-general-manager-patrick-paolini-fire-emily-miller/).