Posted on 12/30/2009 7:22:37 PM PST by marktwain
I don't know exactly how long Colleen Long has been employed by the Associated Press, but if the journalist publishes many more facts that expose the lies of the gun control movement, I expect she'll be visiting the unemployment lines very soon.
In an article noting an increase in the number of officers killed in the line of duty by gunfire in 2009, Long departed from the anti-gun media template by providing a great deal of perspective on the increase.
From the story:
"The number of officers killed in the line of duty by gunfire increased 24 percent from 2008, according to preliminary statistics compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a national nonprofit organization that tracks officer-related deaths.
As of Saturday, 47 police officers have died nationwide this year after being shot while on duty, up from 38 for the same time in 2008, which was the lowest number of gunfire deaths since 1956, according to the data."
Just publishing the actual numbers themselves (38 last year, 47 this year) provides a great deal of perspective, as does the fact that last year marked a historical low. And keeping in mind that there are close to 1 million officers on the street (a number Long also provides later in the story), the situation becomes even clearer.
But Long didn't stop there.
"The availability of guns compounds the problem, criminologists say. But Pennsylvania, the state with the most gun-related officer deaths so far this year, has among the strictest gun laws in the country, according to a ranking by the pro-gun-control Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Other states, like Louisiana, Oklahoma and Kentucky, have very little oversight and had few, if any, officer gun deaths this year."
Amazing! This is the type of analysis that is completely absent from the vast majority of gun-related reports in mainstream media. Pro-gun advocates often point out that the Brady Campaign gives better grades for having tough gun control laws to states that also have the highest gun violence, but the point is rarely repeated by media who dutifully publish the Brady bunch's grade card press release each year.
The story goes on to note that Kevin Morison, a spokesman for the Officers Memorial Fund, which keeps the statistics, said he sees people on both sides of the gun debate using the numbers to prove points.
"But folks who are willing to intentionally target police officers seem to be able to find a way to accrue guns regardless of what the laws in those state would be," Long quotes Morison as saying, again raising a point those who oppose gun control laws often make, only to have their observations spiked by a biased media.
As if she is unaware she is writing for the anti-gun Associated Press, Long includes still more perspective at the conclusion of her story.
"Overall gunfire deaths have more or less been on a steady decline for decades as more tools become available to keep officers safe. More officers are required to wear bullet-resistant vests. There's also better and faster medical care to save an officer's life.
In 1973, during a heyday of corruption and crime, there were around 600,000 officers and about 156 gunfire deaths. Currently, there are about 900,000 law enforcement officers nationwide and only 47 gunfire deaths this year — a per-capita decrease of nearly 21 percent."
I'm not sure how Colleen Long's story made it past the biased editors at the Associated Press, but I'm glad it did. Poll after poll shows a majority of Americans support the right to bear arms for self-defense, and oppose new gun control laws. No one is asking for the bias to simply switch to the pro-gun side, but it is high-time the American media start telling the whole story in its coverage of gun-related issues, and Colleen Long has written an excellent example of how such articles can be written.
This is WRONG. Pennsylvania (a commonwealth, BTW) has some of the least restrictive gun laws in America. It is a "shall issue" state where you can carry anywhere, massive gun shows almost daily and you can buy anything up to a fully automatic legally. And it has a huge hunter and NRA populations.
AND most of those police officer deaths are in Philadelphia. A cesspool of democrat control and pandering to criminals.
The anti-gun crowd will only see guns/deaths and demand more gun laws.
Hmmm. More cop-killing since the President of the United States said something about cops acting “stupidly.”
Connection? I don’t know.
Could it be that the media has noticed that fewer and fewer people are falling for their biased reporting? Maybe they've done some triangulation and decided to move a little closer to the truth?
The storyline on CNN HLN this morning was that overall number of cops killed in the line of duty went down - hinting that since Obama became president, cop killing has declined (even though the overwhelming majority of police deaths are accidental/vehicular). At the very end of the story, the newsbabe hurriedly mentioned that fatal police shootings actually went up. That’s how the SRM is portraying the story on TV - the website is a bit more balanced. They need a little more time to spin this disaster for their president. Cop killings and violent crime was supposed to go down under Hopeychangey’s reign (the benevolent dictator), just like Islamic-motivated terrorist attacks in the US. Whoops, that’s right - terror attacks (with one successful in killing 14 innocents) have gone markedly up in the past 6 months.
Actually, the population estimate is around 309 million in 2009, and was around 212 million in 1973. With corresponding “police deaths by gun fire” of 47 in 2009 vs. 156 in 1973, that is almost a 500 percent decrease.
???
That's the first I heard about this...
I know that any non-felon over 21 can walk into the sheriff's office with proof of county residency and walk out 25 minutes later with a concealed carry permit. You don't need to state a reason for wanting the permit other than "self defense", you don't need to take any courses at all, and you don't even need to own a gun. If that's "strict", then I guess that's good news for the country. America must be moving in the right direction when it comes to the 2nd amendment.
I believe Pennsylvania is also the "militia" capital of the freaking world.
The politicians don't mess with gun owners here, except occasionally for a few silly politicians from concentrated Democrat parasite nests ("cities").
I was calculating the per capita figures on the population of police. You are doing it on the total population.
Also, you appear to be using the last figure as the base for determining percent, while I am using the initial figure as the base. If I reverse, and use the last, the figures are close, as it would show a 400 percent decline. That is counterintuitive, however, as it is hard to see how a number of events can decrease more than 100 percent
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