2016 was another great year for the firearms industry. Sales continue to soar and retailers reported a record level of background checks. Let’s review some of the top firearms stories in 2016 as we look forward to continued growth and success for the Second Amendment community in 2017.
5. The Ohio State “Shooting.” The Ohio State “shooting” story turned out not to be about a shooting, and many in the gun control crew were disappointed that they did not have a mass shooting to rally around and call for more “sensible gun laws.” But that didn’t stop the agitating. Some gun control celebrities who got way ahead of the story included the likes of Lt. Gov. of California Gavin Newsom, failed vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine, and the young-adult website Vox. Never ones to miss an opportunity for some political grandstanding, these characters tweeted out their stock anti-gun propaganda before accurate information about the “shooting” came to light. Once it was confirmed there was no shooting but rather a mass stabbing, the incident was promptly memory-holed because it had some inconvenient aspects to it.
This August 2016 image provided by TheLantern.com shows Abdul Razak Ali Artan in Columbus, Ohio. Authorities identified Abdul Razak Ali Artan as the Somali-born Ohio State University student who plowed his car into a group of pedestrians on campus and then got out and began stabbing people with a knife Monday, Nov. 28, 2016, before he was shot to death by an officer. (Kevin Stankiewicz/TheLantern.com via AP)
4. The Orlando Pulse Nightclub Massacre. A little-reported event surrounding the Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre was that self-proclaimed Islamic terrorist and “known wolf” Omar Mateen was turned away from at least one firearms store when he tried to acquire materials to assist in his slaughter.
Abell said a member of his staff thought the questions were “odd” and made him uncomfortable, so he turned the man away.
Abell added that they thought the man was “very suspicious,” so they called the local FBI office in West Palm Beach and reported the incident. But they didn’t have the man’s name, since no sale was made, and the only surveillance footage they had was grainy.
You would think the folks at Lotus Gunworks would be celebrated for their diligence — certainly their hesitancy to sell to Mateen contradicts the left-wing media portrait of gun owners as bloodthirsty, murderous death lovers. But again, this was an inconvenient narrative that did not get much attention or acknowledgement.
3. Kim Rhode Makes Olympic History. Kim Rhode, masterful skeet shooter and dedicated Second Amendment advocate, made Olympic history when she medaled in her sixth consecutive Olympics. Rhode won the bronze medal in the women’s skeet in Rio 2016, adding that to her list of victories in Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London, and she was pregnant when she won her medal in London. Our media co-conspirators don’t care to support women who are champion athletes if their sport involves firearms, so Kim was rewarded with being snubbed by advertisers too scared to get in the anti-gun left’s crosshairs. The media subsequently wrote think pieces about how sad it was that our U.S. Shooting Team athletes are snubbed by sponsors.
Kimberly Rhode of the United States shoots during the women’s skeet qualification, at the Olympic Shooting Center at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
2. Democrats Hold National Tantrum in House Chamber for Unconstitutional Gun Control Legislation. To quote our soon-to-be-former-president: elections have consequences, which means that if the Democrats don’t control either the House or the Senate, they don’t control the legislative agenda. The Democrats did the next best thing to passing “sensible gun control” by throwing a tantrum with a “sit-in” in the House of Representatives because their gun control agenda was getting ignored.
The House Democrats staged a sit-in to protest the lack of “meaningful gun control” following the Orlando massacre. Their preferred legislation would include several Constitution-violating measures including blocking gun purchases for people on secret government lists generated by bureaucrats, and denying potential gun consumers their due-process rights.
Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives staging a sit-in on the House floor. REUTERS/Rep. Donna Edwards/Handout
1. Katie Couric’s anti-gun propaganda documentary on EPIX. The “Under the Gun” documentary from Katie Couric was one big, fat, hot mess. First of all, the gun purchases documented in the film were called out as illegal by gun experts. Producer Stephanie Soechtig marveled on social media about how easy it was for her out-of-state producer to purchase “assault weapons” and firearms “legally” in Arizona, seemingly unaware that federal firearms laws require interstate gun sales to go through a local FFL. (Sometimes I think these people want more gun laws because they have no idea what gun laws are already on the books. But I know it’s really because they don’t want anyone to own guns.) To date, none of the documentary crew have been charged with any federal firearms law violations.
But the shenanigans in the documentary didn’t stop there. A Northern Virginia gun-rights group filed suit claiming the documentary was deceptively edited to make them look like a bunch of idiot mouth-breathers.
However, raw audio of the interview between Katie Couric and the activists provided to the Washington Free Beacon shows the scene was deceptively edited. Instead of silence, Couric’s question is met immediately with answers from the activists. A back and forth between a number of the league’s members and Couric over the issue of background checks proceeds for more than four minutes after the original question is asked.
Couric issued a “sorrynotsorry” apology about the editing and the media pretended she had really apologized. The documentary was pulled from the EPIX website, although a spokesperson for the cable station claimed it was due to a pre-established distribution agreement. Good riddance.
Katie Couric attends the LA premiere of “Under The Gun” at Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Tuesday, May 3, 2016 in Beverly Hills.(Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
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