CNN AR-15 Deception Recalls Previous Attempts to Spook the Uninformed

U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Gun Violence Epidemic” the CNN “Guns in America” headline claims. “Assault-Style Guns Used in Some of the Country’s Deadliest Shootings.”

“See how AR-15 style guns create ‘explosions inside the body’,” the YouTube headline for the video adds, just to make sure everyone is primed to be horrified and terrified by the “report” that follows. “Real reporter” Josh Campbell then gives us a recap of the more sensational exploitations of “gun-free zones” from over the years where “the high-powered assault rifle has been the weapon of choice for many of the killers.”

To add gravitas, the scene then moves to the Los Angeles Police Department, where their resident weapons specialist gives us an  explanation of the rifle as Campbell breathlessly adds “not to mention, it can fire a bullet with enough power to pierce soft body armor!”

Not to mention how many hunting rounds of higher calibers, preferred by many to take down deer and larger game, will do that and more…

And isn’t it curious that the LAPD “Only Ones”  display a poster identifying what they use as a “patrol rifle”? Giving credit where it’s due, that bit of manipulation was called to our attention years ago by colleague Kurt Hofmann, who pointed out the logical disconnect that magically transforms these things into “assault rifles,” “weapons of war,” and “killing machines” when in the hands of we mere unwashed “civilians.”

But media apparatchik Campbell’s just getting started. Next, he takes us back to the North Hollywood shootout to provide an authoritative example of “assault weapon fire.”

The problem with that? The bad guys had modified their weapons to fire full auto. And the dutiful ATF shooter at 1:19 into the video also fires off a select-fire burst that the semiautos CNN is trying to help get banned won’t do.

That’s one of the oldest intentional deceptions in the book, proposed by Violence Policy Center’s resident violence monopolist Josh Sugarmann back in 1988, who advocated:

“The weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.”

Campbell either knows about that, which makes him a liar, or doesn’t, which makes him incompetent. I’m not seeing a “third way” here.

Next, we go to Wayne State University, where viewers can be properly terrified by watching rounds fired into ballistics gel. We see the difference in cavitation between a handgun round (one of those 9mms Joe Biden says will blow a lung out?) and an AR-15 round, that “researcher” Cynthia Bir asserts “It basically goes into the body and creates an explosion inside the body.”

That’s reminiscent of nothing so much as former New Jersey Assemblything Patricia Edington, who at a .50 BMG gun-grab pep rally with New York Congressthing Carolyn McCarthy stood up with a straight face and actually claimed:

“Some of these bullets as you saw have an incendiary device on the tip of it, which is a heat-seeking device. So, you don’t shoot deer with a bullet that size. If you do, you could cook it at the same time.”

The thing is “sonoluminescence or dieseling” can be a thing, even in handgun rounds. But Bir is talking about cavitation channel expansion and adds to the feeling that she might be as interested in emotional manipulation as anything else when she chokes up on queue (very professional!) following CNN’s lead on the effects of such destructive forces on children’s smaller bodies.

Here’s the conclusion they don’t want viewers to realize: If expended ammunition wasn’t capable of producing lethal destructive force on human bodies, it would be useless as a defensive deterrent. What should be the object of focus is not citizen disarmament, but armed citizens being able to minimize “success” by promptly dispatching child-slaughtering monsters to hell.

And, as mentioned before, you should see what some of the even more powerful hunting rounds will do to ballistics gel, not to mention Joe Biden’s favorite gun (assuming he really only has two). From 22 seconds into “12-Gauge Shotgun DESTROYS Ballistics Gel”:

“With 7.5 shot, the wound is only five inches deep, but the 350 lead balls absolutely destroy all of the tissue over a one-foot area.”

Why don’t they tell viewers that? (Don’t worry, they eventually will, when it’s the Fudds’ turn in the barrel.)

Next, Campbell takes on magazines, explaining how, as a former FBI “Only One,” he’s trained to quickly reacquire a target after reloading, but that popular standard capacity mags mean we mere mortals don’t need to take as many breaks. You’ll note despite their supposed mad skills, they still opt for more than 10 rounds, and speaking of that, who remembers an ATF agent who, after seizing Airsoft guns under the pretext they could be easily converted into machineguns, gave his own demonstration for the cameras by trying to insert a magazine backward?

Pursuing the meme that even though handguns are used more often in violent crimes but “AR-15-style” firearms are used in “deadlier” shootings, Campbell doubles down on the VPC “confusion” tactic. “This weapon that was designed originally for the use by soldiers on the battlefield is now causing unspeakable carnage here at home,” he asserts.

Except the semiautomatic AR-15 was not designed for that, as the original ATF classification proves. It’s funny what a “small cadre” of determined advocates interested in the truth — who don’t have CNN’s resources and budgets — can prove that somehow eludes “authorized journalists” working for “the most trusted name in news.”

At this point, anchor Jake Tapper dismisses Campbell and brings in CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta to showcase his gunquack credentials. They lost me at the “Kinetic Energy of a Bullet” graphic (see 5:22 into the video) where they showed the complete cartridges, casings and all, being fired:

That wasn’t excusable when it was a college newspaper doing it, and certainly reached new depths of ludicrousness when no less than AFP (Agence France-Presse, the French international news agency) spread an Iraqi woman’s claim that unfired rounds hit her house.

I’ll confess, I stopped there and haven’t watched the rest of CNN’s video. Maybe I’ll resume when I get some time. I started this article thinking there’d be two or three points to refute but wasn’t prepared to have to stop every few seconds to fisk the whole damn thing. Go ahead and finish it if you like, but I can only stomach so many lies and so much manipulation, and these shameless propagandists have pushed it to my limit.

In any case, it appears to have done its job in helping convince the administration that “something must be done, and while it doesn’t look like the Republicans have been gutless enough to include an “assault weapon” ban in their “bipartisan framework” (yet), Joe Biden’s handlers are going after the next best thing: Ammo.

“BREAKING NEWS: The U.S. Military is actively considering shutting down the sale is M855/SS109 ammo from Lake City to the commercial market,” the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Larry Keane tweeted Wednesday. And while some are dismissing the impact and citing alternatives, it’s a start. And if there’s one thing the prohibitionists are “good” at, it’s taking what they can get in increments.

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.