New op-ed up on news coverage of Texas Defensive Gun Use Case

Foxnews.com has my latest op-ed up on guns. It discusses the news coverage of last weeks' mulitple victim public shooting in Tyler, Texas that left two people dead.

But what makes this case different is that 21 percent of the news stories actually mentioned that a citizen licensed to carry a concealed weapon used his gun to try and help stop the attack.

This is a pretty long piece and I think that it has a lot of interesting information.


UPDATE: I have been getting a lot of feedback about this op-ed. Thanks. One thing that has upset a few people is the comparison of the civilian version of the AK-47 to a deer rifle.

Only two stories mentioned that the AK-47 was a semi-automatic, not a machine gun, and, while it is understandable, none of the articles provided context by explaining that Arroyo’s weapon functioned the same as deer hunting rifles, firing the same caliber bullets, at the same rapidity, and doing the same damage.

People seem to realize that the caliber of the bullets are the same, but they focus on the fact that the clip is so much larger on the AK-47. For example, "Only a fool or a liar, Mr. Lott, would believe that deer hunting rifles have magazines capable of firing off more than 50 rounds of ammunition." My response: "Thanks for your note, but once a gun can accept a clip there is really no limit on the size of the clip. The AK-47 used here and owned by Americans is a civilian version of the military weapon. They are semi-automatic guns and do indeed have the same firing mechanism as your regular 30 caliber deer rifle. By the way, any handgun that can take a clip can have a clip that extends down below the grip."

Further Update: Comments on my piece can be found here and here. I have additional posts on this case at Tyler, Texas here, here, and here.