Permitless carry is the law in 25 states. That’s half the nation as it stands, and we know more states will pass such laws over the next several years.
That’s bad news for anti-Second Amendment types.
They don’t want to see constitutional carry pass. Part of that is, of course, because many believe guns are bad. The problem is that they, and their buddies in the media, like to play games with the facts.
Memphis native Doneisha Eddings is hoping the permitless carry law that was just enacted last year in Tennessee will be reversed.
The law allows gun owners to carry a weapon in public without a permit or training.
Eddings has lost two family members to gun violence and believes loosening restrictions will make crime worse.
On Christmas Eve, three bullets went through the Edding’s home. Doneisha’s little brother, Artemis “Shun” Rayford, was hit.
“It was blood everywhere in the living room. And when I got over there, he was in my mother’s arms,” said Eddings. “She was just holding him crying. I knew I couldn’t… I couldn’t take it. I had to walk back out. It was sad. I couldn’t take it.”
12-year-old Rayford died from a stray bullet. His death came just months after Tennessee adopted a permitless carry law.
Eddings said she feels the loosened restrictions contributed to an increase in gun violence and her brother’s death. No suspect has been arrested yet in his case.
I have no doubt that Eddings feels that way.
That doesn’t make it true, though.
You see, as awful as that story is, there’s absolutely no evidence linking that shooting with anyone who lawfully owns a gun, much less was lawfully carrying one. After all, convicted felons can’t lawfully carry regardless of whether a state has permitless carry or not.
And the media likely knows this, but they love to include stories like this anyway because they want that emotional punch to try and sway people.
Now, in fairness, they do provide a counterargument later in the report. However, this, too, is a media game.
You see, we know that most people only read the first bit of a news story. The deeper you can bury an argument, the less likely it will be that anyone will see it.
This is intentional.
So they run the emotional story and the feelings of someone who lost a loved one to a gunshot–and it’s a horrific tragedy, to be sure–so that you’ll feel that gut punch and hopefully want to do so something. In this case, it’s to repeal Tennessee’s permitless carry or oppose future laws in other states.
And it’s infuriating.
Many in the media keep saying they’re not biased, but then we see crap like this. It’s never the story of the person who was able to save their own life because of permitless carry. It’s never the law-abiding citizen who defended another because they’d decided just days earlier to start carrying a firearm.
You never see those stories–and you can’t convince me they don’t happen–because they don’t want anyone seeing the other side of constitutional carry. They don’t want you to understand that.
Instead, they just feed people a steady diet of sob stories about people being shot and then try to link the two simply because someone became vehemently anti-gun after something like that.
Trust me, these are not the kind of people you should trust on policy. They’re emotionally driven and know little about the topic except that it’s a useful scapegoat for the loss of someone they care about.
I know that all too well.
