Sick! PBS Demands For Gun Control Inside Your Homes!
Today on PBS NewsHour, the show allowed a gun control activist to push for federal laws that restrict how gun owners store firearms in their own homes. Unfortunately, this segment was filled with anti-gun rhetoric and misinformation. William Brangham first recalled a teacher in Newport News, Virginia, who was shot by a six-year-old student, and a toddler in Indiana who walked around an apartment building with a parent's handgun.
The guest on the show was Josh Sugarmann of the Violence Policy Center, who began by lamenting the lack of federal laws on this matter. He complained about legal gun owners and declared that there is a "mania" about guns in America that endangers children.
This anti-gun segment was filled with misinformation and false facts. Sugarmann advised that the most important thing parents can do to ensure child safety is not to have a gun in the home. However, statistics show that having a gun in the home actually decreases the risk of homicide, suicide, and unintentional injury to children. He also criticized the gun industry for marketing its products to young people, even though the industry has made strides towards responsible gun ownership.
PBS NewsHour's segment on Wednesday was nothing more than a biased and agenda-driven attack on gun owners. The facts were misinformed and the anti-gun rhetoric was unfounded. It's important to remember that responsible gun ownership is a key part of the Second Amendment and is an essential part of protecting our families and our rights.
This segment was an insult to the millions of law-abiding gun owners in America who practice responsible gun ownership, and it’s a reminder of why it’s so important to defend our Second Amendment rights. The facts are clear: the presence of a gun in the home is associated with a lower risk of homicide, suicide, and unintentional injury to children.
The gun control agenda has been pushed for decades and has been proven to not make us any safer. We need to be honest about the facts and be willing to have an open and honest conversation about the role of guns in our society. We need to remember that gun ownership is a right, not a privilege, and we must protect that right.
Transcript
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Last night in Newport News, Virginia, parents demanded more answers about why a six-year-old student was able to access a loaded handgun, bring it into school, and intentionally shoot his first grade teacher. ... And in Indiana a few days ago, residents of an apartment complex shared this alarming video of a toddler wandering alone in a hallway carrying a loaded handgun, pointing it in all directions. The child's father has been arrested. And then in Phoenix earlier this month, a young child found a loaded gun in his apartment, played with it, and accidentally shot himself. The child is in stable condition.
These cases, unfortunately, are not isolated ones. So what exactly are the laws governing how gun owners are supposed to secure their weapons to prevent these kinds of events? Josh Sugermann is the executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit that advocates for stricter gun control. Josh Sugarmann, thanks so much for being here. These examples that I cited are obviously horrendous, discrete events, but can you just tell me a little bit -- broadly speaking, are there any laws governing what a gun is supposed to do -- has to do to protect kids from getting access to those guns?
JOSH SUGARMANN, VIOLENCE POLICY CENTER: Unfortunately, on the federal level, there are no standards as far as safe storage or limiting child access to firearms. And that's a sad fact that has been with us for a long time. The other issue is that, at the same time, you have an increase in firepower. You have an increase in the lethality of guns that are being sold in the U.S. And, finally, one point is that you have things like concealed carry where people come from one home to another and bring a gun with them. And these most recent events -- these horrible events are just the latest example of the price that children pay for the mania we have for guns in this country. And it's not just high-profile incidents like we've just seen, but it's firearm suicide, it's unintentional injury, it's homicides involving children.
BRANGHAM: I recently saw one 2018 survey that indicated roughly four and a half million minors in America live in a household with an unlocked loaded firearm. Are there states that individually do more to require gun owners do more to protect kids from getting guns?
SUGARMANN: There are laws on the state level -- on the local level that can be enacted, such as safe storage, that limit access to -- guns to children, but, having said that, you know, one of those important things to note is that when you talk to the experts regarding child safety, the most important thing you can do if you have a child is not have a gun in home, you know. All too often, we think that, as parents, as guardians, you can safely secure the gun, and the child will never find it. Unfortunately, all too often, that is untrue.
BRANGHAM: Okay, so, separately from this gun access issue, you have documented quite clearly how the gun industry is targeting children as potential customers...