The first time I heard about Geraldo Rivera was when he sought access to Al Capone’s vault. It was a media spectacle that promised much but delivered little. It wasn’t Rivera’s fault, of course, but nothing I’ve really seen from the man since then has been an improvement.
After all, I still remember him being embedded with US troops and being removed after providing way too much information to viewers, which may have included Iraqi intelligence.
But then he had to go and insert himself into the discussion of guns.
Geraldo Rivera, a left-wing Fox News Channel personality, suggested on “The Five” that the “AR” in “AR-15” stands for “automatic rifle” — he gave the answer after Greg Gutfeld asked Rivera what “AR”stands for.
Rivera suggested that owning an AR-15 is about people being macho and claimed that there is not a legitimate purpose for owning one, aside from perhaps being used in sport clubs.
“Those most passionate about ‘gun control’ tend to know the least about guns,” the Daily Caller tweeted when sharing a clip of Rivera.
Greg Gutfeld: "What does 'AR' stand for?"
Geraldo Rivera: "It is automatic rifle."
Greg Gutfeld: "No, that's not what it is."
Geraldo Rivera: "All I know is AR-15s have no place in American society."
Those most passionate about 'gun control' tend to know the least about guns pic.twitter.com/MWV23CYWuk
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 17, 2023
Rivera wasn’t done, though. He then tweeted this:
Heard the Daily Caller and fellow travelers are ranting about my incorrect definition on-air of “AR” as in AR-15. Whatever. Point is, there is no place (other than sporting clubs and similar skilled settings) for assault rifles.
They’re substitute appendages.— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) January 18, 2023
Ah, yes, the old “substitute penis” claim by an anti-gunner.
Rivera should know that if AR-15s were used as proxy genitalia by poorly endowed men, then there would be absolutely no market for short-barreled AR-pattern firearms.
But what about Rivera’s core claim that not knowing what AR stands for is irrelevant in the deeper scope of things?
Well, just like with Capone’s vault, Rivera is coming up empty again.
Look, everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if it’s misinformed. Yet, Geraldo Rivera is a supposed journalist. Part of that job, at least in theory, is informing yourself on the topic you’re discussing. If you’re on a program and unfamiliar with the topic, you say so. That’s part of the job.
For him to get such a fundamental fact about the AR-15 wrong – something you could find just looking at the Wikipedia entry for the weapon – what else did he not bother to research? It’s pretty clear, based on his comments, that there’s no reason for you or me to have one and that he’s never seen the instances where it seems pretty clear the AR-15 is the only reason a good guy survived a deadly attack, just as an example.
Rivera doesn’t have to be right. He’s at a point in his career where someone will pay him no matter how little effort he puts into the job. Frankly, I can’t help but think that it must be nice.
However, he does need to do some basic research if he’s going to feel qualified to discuss topics like gun control, particularly regarding something like the AR-15 and potential bans of them.
What we see is that while Rivera may well be on Fox News, he’s definitely someone who swallows the leftist media’s definitions.
Actually, that might not be fair.
The whole “AR stands for assault rifle” thing has been so thoroughly debunked even the mainstream media generally won’t go down that road anymore. Anti-Second Amendment activists still do, though. The fact that Rivera thinks the same thing means he’s in that camp, or he hasn’t followed the topic in the last couple of years.
The fact that he doesn’t know what AR stands for really does invalidate his other points. It shows just how little he understands about the topic he’s pontificating on. While he still has a right to his opinion, he illustrates that no one should take his opinion seriously because it’s not fully informed.
