Source; https://www.americangunnews.com/usa-today-publishes-rare-op-ed-in-favor-of-gun-rights/
Unfortunately, it isn’t very often that mainstream media outlets choose to publish content in favor of gun rights. Far more often, the media takes the side of gun control activists and publish pieces in favor of stricter gun laws and gun bans. Therefore, when a major media outlet such as USA Today publishes a piece arguing in favor of gun rights or against increased gun control, supporters of the Second Amendment are shocked.
On Monday, USA Today published an op-ed titled “More Gun Safety Law aren’t the Answer to Gun Violence”. In this piece, Robert Farago, the article’s author, spells out the obvious, stating that more government intervention has rarely fixed any problem and certainly isn’t going to fix our nation’s problems with gun violence.
At one point in the article, Farago mentions Ronald Reagan’s famous quote which says, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’”.
Farago goes on to ask USA Today readers “Do you really think the government can solve America’s ‘gun violence’ problem — firearms-related suicides, deadly gangbanging and deranged school shooters — by enacting ‘gun safety’ laws?” and claims that they are “delusional” if they answer yes.
These two quotes seem to sum up the main thrust of an argument that USA Today readers probably aren’t used to hearing; Gun violence is a societal problem that is far outside the government’s ability to control, and any attempts on the government’s behalf to fix this problem with more “gun safety” laws are sure to backfire.
It’s worth noting that the Farago’s USA Today op-ed is both brief and devoid of any statistics or examples of how badly gun control has failed in the past, and it’s also worth noting that the article was tagged by USA Today as being an “opposing view”. In other words, Farago’s brief statement about the ineffectiveness of government intervention when it comes to stopping gun violence may have been all that USA Today was willing to publish.
Farago could have also discussed countries such as the United Kingdom or Australia where strict gun control laws have failed to halt growing violent crime rates or taken the time to further detail the lack of logic behind popular gun control initiatives such as restricting how many firearms a person can own or banning high-capacity magazines (it only takes one firearm to commit a mass shooting, and a shooter with three 10-round magazines is every bit as deadly as a shooter with one 30-round magazine).
Nevertheless, while Farago’s USA Today op-ed was a far cry from being a brutal takedown of gun control arguments, it is still refreshing to hear a viewpoint that a majority of Americans agree with voiced in a major media outlet.
By and large, those in favor of increased gun control are well-meaning people who are simply uninformed about the opposing viewpoint. With this being the case, more widespread coverage of the many shortcomings of “gun safety” laws is exactly what we need to help turn the tide.
Read the USA Today story for yourself here.
Replies