'People' Magazine Tells Readers to Contact Representatives on Gun-Violence Problem

The policy wonks over at People magazine have decided to enter the political fray and pick a side on the gun-control debate.

Following the recent mass shooting in Oregon, the magazine “did something it always does: It covered the story at length and wrote about each victim.” But this time it did something a little extra.

“Ask your representatives about gun violence in America, and let them know what you think,” says the accompanying message, which appears in the issue on newsstands Wednesday, and was posted on People.com.

The magazine says that the editors “took pains not to [take a political stand]” writes ABC News.

Jess Cagle, People’s editorial director, tried to explain:

“All we’re saying is, ‘Hold your representatives’ feet to the fire,'” Cagle said. “‘Let them know what you’re thinking.’ That’s all. But everyone sort of projects their own baggage onto (the issue.)”

“Who knows if this will help?” Cagle asked. “It’s just so hard to read and write about these shootings and not want to do something about it.” He added that the Oregon shooting, in which Christopher Harper-Mercer fatally shot nine people at Umpqua Community College before killing himself, had “caused a kind of a tipping point.”

“These mass shootings are so shocking, and there are so many of them,” Cagle said. “And as we covered this one, it was just so horrifying to think how many times we’ve been doing it.”

This is the problem with the elitist media types who are entirely out of touch with people who don’t live in New York or L.A. Yes, these are horrible tragedies and people have an instinct to do “something about it.” But what to do? I can assure you that your representative of either political persuasion doesn’t know how to stop crazy lunatics from committing mass murder, assuming of course that we aren’t looking at a 24-hour surveillance state that disarms the law-abiding citizens. (The left loves the police state but hates the police. Discuss.)

The folks over at People are so biased that they see this only as gun issue and not a mental health issue. Why not call your representative and ask what they are doing to help the untreated mentally ill? To blame the firearm but not ask about the criminal’s mental health is both naive and willfully ignorant. Guns don’t make people homicidal maniacs. There are more than 300 million guns in the United States and almost none of them are involved in murders. (Jazz Shaw writes over at Hot Air that in 2011, only 8,583 firearms were used in actual murders, as opposed to suicides and accidents and other things, debunking the media’s misrepresentative statistics.)

Maybe People magazine should do a cover story about all the people being murdered in gun-free Chicago, like this little baby who was shot or its mother and grandmother who were killed during a bloody and violent murder spree in Chicago?