Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
On Wednesday's PBS NewsHour, the show devoted a segment to allowing a gun control activist to promote federal laws to control how gun owners store firearms in their own homes, picking up on recent cases of small children gaining access to the guns of their parents.
William Brangham introduced the segment by recalling a teacher in Newport News, Virginia, who was shot by a six-year-old student, and a toddler in Indiana who walked around an apartment building with a parent's handgun.
Even though the father of one child was arrested, and the mother of the other might also be arrested, Brangham set up the discussion of laws restricting gun owners in their own homes: "These cases, unfortunately, are not isolated ones. So what exactly are the laws governing how gun owners are supposed to secure their weapons to prevent these kinds of events?"
He then brought aboard Josh Sugarmann of the Violence Policy Center, and began by asking what laws currently exist regarding the storage of guns in the home. The liberal activist began by lamenting the lack of federal laws on the matter:
Unfortunately, on the federal level, there are no standards as far as safe storage or limiting child access to firearms. And that's a sad fact that has been with us for a long time. The other issue is that, at the same time, you have an increase in firepower. You have an increase in the lethality of guns that are being sold in the U.S.
Even though concealed carry holders tend to be substantially more law-abiding and responsible on average, Sugarmann then complained about these legal gun owners as he also declared that there is a "mania" about guns in America that endangers children:
And, finally, one point is that you have things like concealed carry where people come from one home to another and bring a gun with them. And these most recent events -- these horrible events are just the latest example of the price that children pay for the mania we have for guns in this country. And it's not just high-profile incidents like we've just seen, but it's firearm suicide, it's unintentional injury, it's homicides involving children.
After Brangham fretted over a finding that millions of children live in homes with guns, Sugarmann advised that the parents of children should not have guns in their homes:
...one of those important things to note is that when you talk to the experts regarding child safety, the most important thing you can do if you have a child is not have a gun in home, you know. All too often, we think that, as parents, as guardians, you can safely secure the gun, and the child will never find it. Unfortunately, all too often, that is untrue.
Brangham went on to bring up his guest's criticisms about the gun industry marketing its products to young people.
This episode of the PBS NewsHour was funded by Consumer Cellular as well as viewers like you.
Transcript follows:
PBS NewsHour
January 18, 2023
7:14. pm. Eastern
AMNA NAWAZ: In the last few weeks, the country has seen several harrowing events where very young children have had access to loaded guns, taken those firearms, and, in two cases, shot themselves and others. It's again raised questions about the responsibilities of adult gun owners to better protect the children around them. William Brangham has our conversation.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Last night in Newport News, Virginia, parents demanded more answers about why a six-year-old student was able to access a loaded handgun, bring it into school, and intentionally shoot his first grade teacher. ... And in Indiana a few days ago, residents of an apartment complex shared this alarming video of a toddler wandering alone in a hallway carrying a loaded handgun, pointing it in all directions. The child's father has been arrested. And then in Phoenix earlier this month, a young child found a loaded gun in his apartment, played with it, and accidentally shot himself. The child is in stable condition.
These cases, unfortunately, are not isolated ones. So what exactly are the laws governing how gun owners are supposed to secure their weapons to prevent these kinds of events? Josh Sugermann is the executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit that advocates for stricter gun control. Josh Sugarmann, thanks so much for being here. These examples that I cited are obviously horrendous, discrete events, but can you just tell me a little bit -- broadly speaking, are there any laws governing what a gun is supposed to do -- has to do to protect kids from getting access to those guns?
JOSH SUGARMANN, VIOLENCE POLICY CENTER: Unfortunately, on the federal level, there are no standards as far as safe storage or limiting child access to firearms. And that's a sad fact that has been with us for a long time. The other issue is that, at the same time, you have an increase in firepower. You have an increase in the lethality of guns that are being sold in the U.S. And, finally, one point is that you have things like concealed carry where people come from one home to another and bring a gun with them. And these most recent events -- these horrible events are just the latest example of the price that children pay for the mania we have for guns in this country. And it's not just high-profile incidents like we've just seen, but it's firearm suicide, it's unintentional injury, it's homicides involving children.
BRANGHAM: I recently saw one 2018 survey that indicated roughly four and a half million minors in America live in a household with an unlocked loaded firearm. Are there states that individually do more to require gun owners do more to protect kids from getting guns?
SUGARMANN: There are laws on the state level -- on the local level that can be enacted, such as safe storage, that limit access to -- guns to children, but, having said that, you know, one of those important things to note is that when you talk to the experts regarding child safety, the most important thing you can do if you have a child is not have a gun in home, you know. All too often, we think that, as parents, as guardians, you can safely secure the gun, and the child will never find it. Unfortunately, all too often, that is untrue.
BRANGHAM: Okay, so, separately from this gun access issue, you have documented quite clearly how the gun industry is targeting children as potential customers...
(...)
As PBS NewsHour has run segments this week several times promoting the Democrat party's agenda on gun control, co-host Geoff Bennett on Thursday also promoted a PBS special on survivors of gun-related violence which also squeezed in a liberal agenda.
In the report, Ricochet: An American Trauma, which can be seen online, William Brangham not only spoke with several people who had lost loved ones from either murder or suicide by gun, the PBS reporter also included a clip of University of Maryland professor Joseph Richardson, Jr., who used some of his time to push liberal agenda items.
Even though letting criminals out of prison in recent years, as well as a scaling back of police actions in response to media pressure, have heavily factored into recent increases in violent crime, Professor Richardson complained about "mass incarceration" and "hyper-policing." He also called for more programs to address poverty issues like health care:
JOSEPH RICHARDSON, JR., UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: We can prevent gun violence. We know that we can prevent it. There have been numerous studies that have been done which suggest the ways that we can prevent it -- by addressing concentrated poverty -- by addressing the dysfunction in schools, mass incarceration, hyper-policing of communities, food deserts, medical deserts, providing access to quality health care. All of these things can contribute to reducing the level of gun violence that we have in our communities.
Toward the end of the show, Sandy Phillips -- whose daughter was murdered in a mass shooting -- brought up the issue of shootings that occur in predominantly black neighborhoods, which was followed by a soundbite of Ryane Nickens, who also had a family member who was murdered. Nickens accused the media of ignoring black shooting victims:
RYANE NICKENS, FOUNDER OF THE REARON CENTER: Mass shootings where the victims are white and the shooter is white, that's an American problem. Community violence in black and brown communities that has been happening for four or five decades, that's just a black and brown -- that's just a Hispanic and black African American problem.
Richardson was then given another soundbite in which he suggested that America does not care about black victims:
Mass shootings happen every day in America. There are four or more people who are shot every day, and they typically happen in cities with populations of black people who are the victims or survivors of mass shootings. I'm definitely disturbed by it and the ways that the media often neglects to illuminate black suffering in similar ways and to provide attention that's given to it almost as if you deserve to be shot, right? And who deserves to be shot in this country?
The PBS special did not find anything positive to say about guns, like finding examples of the many times guns are used to prevent or fight off violent criminals.
Even though murders and other crimes dropped substantially between 1994 and 2014 as the U.S. locked up criminals more aggressively, no attention was given to the issue of liberals hindering the criminal justice system from punishing criminals adequately in recent years, or the media whipping up hostility to police officers over the past decade and hurting morale.
This PBS NewsHour Special Report was funded by Consumer Cellular as well as viewers like you.
Partial transcript follows:
PBS NewsHour Special Report
Ricochet: An American Trauma
(35 minutes in)
RYANE NICKENS, FOUNDER OF THE REARON CENTER: Most people aren't born killers. They are created. We have created killers in America. We have done that, and they have been created by circumstance.
JOSEPH RICHARDSON, JR., UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: We can prevent gun violence. We know that we can prevent it. There have been numerous studies that have been done which suggest the ways that we can prevent it -- by addressing concentrated poverty -- by addressing the dysfunction in schools, mass incarceration, hyper-policing of communities, food deserts, medical deserts, providing access to quality health care. All of these things can contribute to reducing the level of gun violence that we have in our communities.
(...)
(48 minutes in)
SANDY PHILLIPS, MOTHER OF AURORA SHOOTING VICTIM: Lonnie and I have always tried to build a bridge between the mass shootings to the individual shootings that -- as a friend of mine calls them, "slow motion mass shootings" -- that happen every day in America.
BRANGHAM: And that get no attention.
PHILLIPS: No attention, and often no investigation. But you hear these stories, and then you start talking to doctors and lawyers and other people, so you're -- it's not just the survivor base, it's the other people that are in that ripple. And they start telling you about, "Oh, yeah, we have eight- and nine-year-olds coming into the ER every weekend that are so traumatized and so deeply scarred that they can't function." We have the collective that live in America and are being slaughtered every day that nobody is paying attention to, and it's like this is a traumatized community.
NICKENS: Mass shootings where the victims are white and the shooter is white, that's an American problem. Community violence in black and brown communities that has been happening for four or five decades, that's just a black and brown -- that's just a Hispanic and black African American problem.
RICHARDSON: Mass shootings happen every day in America. There are four or more people who are shot every day, and they typically happen in cities with populations of black people who are the victims or survivors of mass shootings. I'm definitely disturbed by it and the ways that the media often neglects to illuminate black suffering in similar ways and to provide attention that's given to it almost as if you deserve to be shot, right? And who deserves to be shot in this country?
(...)
PHILLIPS: I'm a little tired of America building memorials to gun violence survivors and victims and not changing the laws that would prevent it.
The FDA today announced plans to ease a decades old restriction preventing men who have sex with men from donating blood. A lifetime ban was put into place during the AIDS epidemic over fears of HIV transmission. The new guidelines would ask all potential donors about their recent sexual history instead of singling out queer men. Any potential donors who had anal sex in the last three months with new or multiple partners would not be allowed to donate. Anyone taking medications to prevent HIV infections would also be deferred for a period of time. For more on this, I'm joined by Cole Williams. He founded the organization Pride and Plasma last spring to bring attention to this issue. Cole, welcome, and thanks for joining us. We have to point out, for over a generation, gay and bisexual men have been shut out from donating blood as freely as anyone else, and fighting for the right to do so. When you think about this moment, how important is it right now?