"Guns in America"

[Rev18]

There is an episode of Explorer called "Guns in America" that airs tonight at 10PM EST on the National Geographic Channel. MSN had a 2 minute clip on their homepage, and it looks like it'll be another classic hit piece. Not too surprised, but it's noteworthy to watch as the propaganda effort begins to ramp up.

I just thought I'd pass along the info in case anybody was interested...

[TOrrock]

The young mother they feature used to be an anti, until she had an altercation which shifted her world view towards self preservation.

She lives in my county.

[ZDL]

http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&vid=ef181a06-41b0-43e5-a437-2212225e3998&playlist=videoByTag:tag:source_national%20geographic%20channel:ns:MSNVideo_Top_Cat:mk:us:sf:ActiveStartDate:vs:0&from=MSNHP&tab=m1189615355930&GT1=42006

[Pops506th]

It should be interesting

I've got it programmed on my Direct TV

[kbrdann]

I will be watching tonite. Lets see what kind of buzz words they use or come up with. Im sure it will just be a propaganda documentary.

[AirmanAtwood]

I noticed in the trailer they showed an airsoft m-60. Very misleading for the people uneducated about firearms. That's the first red flag that this might be a liberal attempt to demonize firearms yet again.

[khc3]

In the first couple of minutes the narrator called a shooting of a cop "an unfortunate byproduct of the 2nd Amendment."

I turned the channel after that.

[ToddG]

Sounds to me the episode was an unfortunate by-product of the 1st Amendment.

[Cruncher Block]

Link to the contact page for National Geographic Channel:

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/contact

I sent the following:

Part of your gun show footage showed someone looking at toy "airsoft" guns. The footage created an alarming but misleading impression for uninformed viewers.

The tone and script of the special seem to suggest your organization believes the Second Amendment is a problem to be solved. I disagree with this attitude.


Will my feedback matter? I don't know but I'm tired of just "putting up with it" where misleading and inflammatory gun stories are concerned. :mad:

[SoDak]

Sounds to me the episode was an unfortunate by-product of the 1st Amendment.

Pretty much. There was one good bit where they were talking to a naturalized citizen from Greece. He tried to knock down the "assault weapon" term by saying that a person can be assaulted by many things used as a weapon. Of course they follow this with their definition of an assault rifle, which I thought was misleading. Overall it was pretty negative I thought.

[Pops506th]

Cruncher Block, Thanks for the link

I just left this comment on their website

Dear NGC,
I just finished watching your show "Guns in America" and I must say that I was more than a little disappointed in your obvious lack of objectivity in this production. You seemed to spend most of the time showing firearms in the hands of criminals and all of the "bad" that goes along with it. It would have been much more objective to include an equal and balanced program showing both sides equally. Almost all of the statistics you stated on the program were negative against firearms. How about the statistic that "XXXXX number of people did NOT use a firearm in a crime, or XXXX number of legally owned firearms in the home did NOT result in the death of a child." I believe that this program is merely another attempt to villify the law abiding gun owner in America and misinform people. I don't imagine that my comments will have any affect on your organization, I felt that I needed to make myself heard. Hopefully your organization will at least look at future projects in a much more objective manner.

Probably won't make a damn bit of difference, but a voice not spoken is a voice never heard.

[Honu]

i tried to watch part of it and it was so bad !!!!!!!

[AirmanAtwood]

Thanks for the contact link :)
I couldn't resist



Dear NGC,
I have just finished watching your show "Guns In America", and I can not suppress my feelings of disdain. One of my main complaints is that, throughout most of the program, you portrayed firearms in the negative. There were more examples of firearms in the hands of criminals than that of them in the hands of law abiding citizens. You also failed to recognized the large number of crimes that have been prevented with the use of firearms for personal defense. In America, firearms have more positives than negatives yet the negatives seem to be the only one that are expressed. Yes, crimes, accidents involving firearms, and murders are very horrible things that occur, but these crimes and murders also happen in countries and nations where firearms are prohibited. The real danger is not firearms but the user of the tool.
My second complaint is your use of the term "assault weapon". An assault weapon has a very open meaning, especially when used by persons uneducated in firearms and their functions. You stated that "assault weapons" allow the user to fire bullets as fast as you can pull the trigger. With that definition, revolvers could also be categorized as "assault weapons". Most individuals with some sort of knowledge of firearms will agree with this definition of an "assault weapon", that definition being a weapon that can fire in a full automatic mode. Full automatic is the ability to fire continually with one constant pull of the trigger to expend all the ammunition. Semi automatic weapons such as the one used by the ex special operations operator fire one bullet for every one pull of the trigger. It has no full automatic capability nor can they be altered to fire that way without extensive and illegal modification.
Last is the clip of an Airsoft BB gun that was shown during the gun show. This might confuse those who are not familiar with firearms and lead them to believe that law abiding citizens are able to buy M60 machine guns. This is not true.
Please, next time you do a show about firearms try harder to have more solid facts. I believe your show will contribute to the mass confusion of firearms by non firearm owning public. In the future please be more clear, and please do not try to deceive the public.
Thank you for reading,
Joshua Atwood.