“• In Florida, you don’t need a permit to conceal carry a rifle or shotgun, although you do need it to conceal carry a handgun” http://cnn.it/2BvK6aU
Conceal carry a rifle, seriously? Not possible. Shotgun, perhaps if it was sawed-off.
Also, CNN falsely reported that the rifle used by the Alexandria shooter, an SKS chambered in 7.62×39, was “a Chinese-made AK variant.” The SKS, a Soviet rifle developed and issued several years before Kalashnikov designed his AK-47, is not fully automatic. It is a semi-automatic weapon that contrasts sharply, both in form and function, with the AK-47.
CNN shouldn’t even be allowed to touch a water pistol.
Also, let’s keep this debate civilized, Most of the users on this website (that I’ve seen) are left side and may be angered by this argument.
If some lunatic drives through a crowd in a van, killing a bunch of people and CNN reports the van had an automatic transmission but it in fact was a 5 speed manual, did CNN misrepresent the fact that people were killed by the driver behind the wheel of the van?
What debate? That the media often gets details wrong? No debate there, I agree. This has been true ever since there was media.
What does that have to do with CNN’s credibility in reporting on shootings, gun deaths, and the shocking rate of gun violence in the US? I’d rather trust CNN than Fox News or the NRA.
I think this question should be changed to “Can we trust mainstream media” and the answer isn’t simple.
The media you see on TV are businesses in a capitalist society. Their main goal is to make money, their secondary goal is to inform people. Corporations like the NRA or big pharma will pay these news stations to advertise on their platform which is where their money comes from. If you’re getting millions of dollars in donations from a pharmaceutical corporation then you’re not going to push out a story about doctors over prescribing pills and mental health institutions telling people they need to buy pills for the rest of their life to stay sane.
Now the real problem comes into play when it’s the same corporations paying the media and our politicians. Like the NRA for example, gun manufacturing and distribution companies give the NRA their money so the NRA can legally bribe politicians with millions of dollars. They then turn around and pay the corporate media to produce a narrative that will help the politician acquire votes while keeping the interests of the NRA and their donors.
The mainstream media is focused on keeping the interests of their advertisers, and getting ratings. This is why Donald Trump got billions of dollars worth of airtime for free, he brought in ratings with his delusional behavior. CNN pays people to go on their show, it’s not far fetched to think they pay people to say certain things on the air, such as telling a trump supporter to go batshit crazy so they can fill 30 minutes worth of airtime with a non-substance news story that’s essentially just a circle jerk.
So remember, money first, news second.
No. The OP isn’t asking about media bias based on financial conflicts of interest. OP is asking whether CNN can tell the difference between an AK47 and an AR15 and whatever other gun related minutia they happened to have got wrong in their reporting. As if that matters in the least to the victims of the latest shooting.
I trust CNN. I know that is not a ringing endorsement, by far. I cannot bear the attitude on Fox.
I read a couple newspaper nearly daily and I compare.
I don’t read much news on the internet. Unless I get breaking news pop-up, and then I will turn CNN and listen.
First of all, of course you can (imperfectly) conceal a rifle while carrying it by hiding it inside a trenchcoat or any number of other long articles of clothing. Second of all, CNN was pointing out the specific limitations and lack of limitations in Florida law concerning when a concealed weapons permit/license is required, since rifles and shotguns are not covered by Florida’s concealed weapons license law.
This distinction between handguns and other types of firearms such as rifles and shotguns is further enshrined in the specific waiting period limitations on purchasing handguns (and handguns only) in the Florida state constitution.
If this is your standard, then no, you can’t “trust” any news outlet. When they report about something I happen to know a lot about, I notice plenty of technical inaccuracies like this. I’m sure you do too.
That said, you can conceal a rifle - I have a (semi auto) Daewoo K2 with a folding stock that’d fit under a jacket very easily; and calling a rifle an “AK” in the context of civilian ownership does not imply that it is fully automatic. There are a great many semiautomatic AK variants available in the US, though you are correct that the SKS isn’t one of them.
Again, the media despite their accuracy is trying to make money. That is the problem here. They could of very well get the facts of a story wrong, but still produce that story for the ratings alone. FoxNews has been blatantly doing that for years.
The thread is asking can we trust mainstream media, and the answer is both yes and no. You cannot trust the accuracy of a story that’s heavily influenced by corporate money. As for the competence, I’m sure these news organizations are very competent compared to online news organizations. NBC, CNN, have all produced very good studies and articles backed up by research they spent the money to do. That’s the one up side to having giant media corporations rack in billions of dollars, they can afford to do the research and studies that other organizations use for their own news or rather political narratives.
Whether or not CNN was correct about what type of gun was used wherever is irrelevant. If it’s a semi-automatic or automatic it’s all the same point. If I hear a news story about a man shooting people with an AK47 but it was actually an AK74 then it won’t make much of a difference to how the news story was portrayed. If they’re saying the gun as an automatic when it was a semi automatic then yes you could argue that’s a bit too incompetent and hurts the legitimacy of the news.
IANAJD, but my assumption is that you are required to carry your long gun in an appropriate bag or case: https://www.cheaperthandirt.com/product/bulldog-cases-msr-sling-pack-with-detachable-fanny-pack-nylon-black-clt-58-672352008494.do
People won’t be “angered”. They just won’t find nitpicking the minutiae and semantics of firearms specs to be a credible argument. It is, however, an effective argument by gun aficionados to try and bypass legislation through attempting to create narrower and narrower definitions for what the law applies to. For example a “butt stock” attachment that effectively enables a semi-automatic weapon to fire at automatic weapon cyclic rates.