Reporters and political pundits this past week continued their long tradition of making fools of themselves when talking about guns and gun rights: the talking heads have gotten simple facts wrong about guns and gun laws, mocked gun owners, and openly advocated for gun control.
During a panel on CNN's "Inside Politics," Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender got the Firearms Owners' Protection Act of 1986 completely wrong.
"If you put a ban on the floor of these that would ban a device that turns something into an automatic weapon, then even the initial question is ‘why not a full ban on all automatic weapons,' which is not the case," Bender said. "Anything made after '85 is legal right now."
The exact opposite is true.
When discussing bump fire stocks, CNN displayed a graphic attempting to explain how bump fire stocks work. The network, however, failed to include a bump fire stock in the animation. It did, for some reason, include both a grenade launcher and silencer.
MSNBC political analyst Steve Schmidt echoed former President Obama when he said it was easier to purchase 50 AK-47 assault rifles than it was to buy cough medicine. Despite the claim being inaccurate, Schmidt was still applauded by the audience for his comment.
Some reporters have even admitted that reporting the "facts" isn't enough, and argue journalists need to go further in order to help Americas. NBC reporter Cal Perry urged his fellow reporters that it has become "impossible" to report just the "facts" about gun violence.
Been a journo for a while now. It has become impossible to report just, "facts" about gun violence. The fact is America needs gun control.
— Cal Perry (@CalNBC) October 2, 2017
When journalists are not getting their facts wrong about guns, they sometimes resort to mocking gun owners.
MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews was horrified at the Republican Party's platform on guns. He called the party "fanatics" and said it treated the Second Amendment as a religion.
"I don't know how to explain it. It's a religious, essential notion to them that everybody should have any kind of gun they want, any—a bazooka, a tank. They never put a limit on it, ever," Matthews said.
This isn't the first time reporters and pundits have made fools of themselves when talking about guns, and it won't be the last.