CNN is finally releasing the story about how there was no AR-15 involved in the Navy Yard Shooting. Note this:
A U.S. law enforcement official said Monday that gunman Aaron Alexis unleashed a barrage of bullets using an AR-15, a rifle and a semi-automatic handgun. Authorities believed the AR-15 was used for most of the shooting, the official said. The news prompted Sen. Dianne Feinstein, one of the strongest proponents of a ban on assault weapons like the AR-15, to issue a statement the same day asking, “When will enough be enough?”
So who were these US Law enforcement officials? This is rank speculation on my part, I want to be clear: but the Administration has a certain amount invested in seeing his gun control agenda through. While it easily could have been a mistake, I do have to note:
- A lie will get halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on.
- The media can be expected to parrot anything they can get their hands on in a mass shooting, and the shooter having an AR-15 comports with their agendas and biases.
- Regardless of the truth coming out now, people will continue to believe an AR-15 was involved, because they barely pay attention.
Which makes me wonder if those leaks about the AR-15 weren’t intentional, and meant to drive the narrative. It’s tin foil hat territory, but this Administration has set new standards for tin foil hat whackery.
It need not be a conspiracy. It can be selection bias.
The reporters and the administration want to ban AR’s. They assume a mass shooting will involve AR’s. Thus when they hear reports from on the ground they run with it.
Recall that CD Law enforcement officials were also telling the media that this was a multiple shooter incident.
Take confused and paniked (legitimately so), and conflicting eyewitness reports and you can get the story of your preference.
Add in the instinct to be first to story and first to build the narrative and there you have it.
My thinking is they heard reports of “AR15” and ran with it, because their thinking on Newton is “we weren’t fast enough!”.
We’ve also seen that this confused and rushed reporting also feeds into conspiracy theories. (Of variosu scales, agendas, and reasonableness).
I think you are right. I can’t imagine ANYONE intentionally leaking false information while the scene was still active.
People know AR-15s because of all the media attention. When they see a guy with a long-gun shooting, they think “AR15” even tho they wouldn’t know what one looked like if it bit them.
Bear in mind that, thanks to media priming, to victims in a situation like that, anything the shooter is holding in two hands is going to be an “AR15”, just like it used to be an “AK47” and, before that, an “Uzi”.
Nope, before that it was AK47. Before THAT it was an Uzi.
Strange, isn’t it.
sorry, I see you got AK47
Yup.
(That and, realistically, the AR is both very popular and an excellent choice if one wants to commit wicked deeds. So it’d be no surprise to see one used by a murderous maniac.
The same properties that make it an excellent tool for personal defense make it an excellent tool for mayhem – just like the same properties that make a Camry a good commuter car make it an good getaway car [arguably better because they’re so damn popular it’s easy to get “lost”].
The Other Side likes to pretend that those properties are only useful for Evil, but that’s their psychological problem.)
FBI: No AR-15 used in Navy Yard shooting.
Yes, that is what we’re talking about.
IOW, police spokespeople repeat whatever eyewitnesses tell them in a developing situation. Anybody who’s ever been in a trial for, say, a car wreck knows what a Rashomon-like exercise that quickly turns into.
And when faced with conflicting accounts one has to pick some and discard others. And in a rush there’s no other way to pick than “gut”.
And this is where our old friend selection bias creeps in.
Hence the rule of: “Don’t beleive anything until at least 24 hours in.”
Maybe they used the updated revision of this journalism tool:
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/2011/01/journalists-guide-to-firearms.html
Look at the events of Newtown, and the misinformation that was thrown around as to what was used. All the changes, the misprints and the facts kept changing. There was an AR there wasn’t an AR…. I don’t care what what used, and I am not really sure why it really matters.
But on another note, anyone else finding the irony of where this took place… DC? Gun Free zones… I shouldn’t find this irony amusing… but I do.
Did anyone else notice this in the CNN story:
— Sandy Hook: Adam Lanza killed 26 people at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, with an AR-15 in December 2012.
Or am I mistake that the gun he used was a pistol, and that the rifle was still in the trunk of his car?
They just can’t bear to tell the truth.
He used the AR. There was a shotgun in the trunk. That narrative was a result of media misinformation and mistakes early on which were corrected later.
Ok, my bad then. There were so many stories about Sandy Hook going around I think I just gave up trying to get it straight at some point.
I still want to know where I can get my CNN reported AR15 shotgun!
Must have meant that MKA1919, it’s an 1100 dolled up to take mags and look like an AR-15. It’s piece of trash, but if you want one, there it is.
Don’t expect him to really be a Buddhist either, as bad as they are with guns they’re worse with Religion.
It’s tin foil hat territory, but this Administration has set new standards for tin foil hat whackery.
At some point, after what your detractors tell you are paranoid delusions are repeatedly revealed to actually be reality, it makes sense to assume that your detractors are lying when they continue to call you paranoid. I believe we’re well beyond that point.
We know that all too often, the tail does indeed wag the dog.
As long as falsehoods and false memes continue to be perpetuated in order to demonize the second amendment and lawful gun owners … those lawful gun owners are going to become increasingly intolerant of the lies and false stereotypes. They can only fool some of the people some of the time.
Let me buy some stock in Alcoa first and then build a large aluminum foil hat because I can easily see claiming the weapon used was an AR fits a narrative Di-Fi, Obama et. al anti-gunners wish to spin. Call me paranoid but I would not be a bit surprised the actual source came from inside the White House through a talking head lackey.
Just as all pistols used in crimes are shown on the 6 o’clock news with the stock photo of a 1911, all long guns used in crimes have the stock photo of an AR platform, AK-47 just doesn’t roll off the pallet as well.
I did love the product placement of the Director of Misinformation from the DC Hospital dressed in some doctors lab coat complete with official issue stethoscope expounding on the extent of the wounds caused by an assault rifle. Perhaps, as a public service the Sport Shooters should band together and book air time after one of these events and show the media hysteria and misinformation in an After the Fact Hot Wash, evaluation of the reporting of the event. Also look into the past of DC’s Chief of Police.
Did anybody hear Fox news out of New York ? They claimed the shooter had a AR 15 that was capable of shooting 3 rounds at a time. As time passed it was no longer a AR but a shotgun.