Tuesday, December 22, 2015

A Fox Butterfield Moment

As the blogfather frequently says, Fox Butterfield, call your office. Here's a headline from our very own Pravda On The Platte. H/T to Colorado Peak Politics for the link:
Colorado gun sales soar in 2015, even amid debate over mass shootings
Conceal-carry guns are becoming more popular in Colorado, even after a series of mass shootings
Mr Butterfield is famous as the journalist who wrote an article headlined "Prison Population Increases Even As Crime Rate Drops" not noticing that he had gotten the cause and effect backwards.

 A couple of quotes from the article make me wonder if the Post isn't subtly inching to the right, trying hard not to not make it obvious. This one for example:
"Of course it's concerning," said Tom Sullivan, who lost his son, Alex, in the Aurora theater shooting in 2012. "I'm concerned about the people buying into the fear that the apocalypse is coming, that the government is coming to get you. No one's coming to get you."
I have the deepest sympathy for Mr. Sullivan. No one should lose a child like that. But Tom, it isn't necessarily the government that's coming to get you. Sometimes it's an orange-haired whack job.

At the same time there's Rhonda Fields (D-Gungrabber)  who lost a child and his wife in a gang-related shooting.
"It seems like every time, whenever there is a mass shooting, gun sales always increase," Fields said. "It's a trend. It happens."
Well, yes it does. People notice when crime increases and the police unfortunately can't get there until it's over. They get to thinking that they, the citizens, might actually be the first responders and that some of the criminals might be deterred by the prospect that the victims or bystanders might shoot back.

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