It’s not something I’m bragging about, but this is surprising. In response to my Times Union blog post on why church gun giveaways do not send a postive message, Breitbart.com sited my blog post.
The headline reads, “Pastor Quotes Daily Kos, Apostle Paul Against AR-15 Giveaway”:
On March 6th Pastor Alan Rudnick cited the Apostle Paul and the Daily Kos to show his opposition to church gun giveaways.
He was specifically reacting to the AR-15 giveaway at Grace Baptist Church, Troy, NY, and gun giveaways at churches in Texas and Kentucky.
According to Rudnick, the Apostle Paul’s admonition that “all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable” applies to gun giveways: “It may be lawful for a church to have [an] AR-15 gun giveway, but it is not profitable to Christianity.”
He did not address why using an AR-15 to defend one’s life and family is unprofitable to Christianity.
However, Rudnick did indicate that “studies show no strong empirical evidence to support… more guns means more safety.” He substantiated this by citing a Daily Kos article which compares owning a firearm “to cigarette smoke” and references a 1998 study showing “no empiric evidence that owning a gun confers some protection on a household from homicide.”
On December 4th Breitbart News reported on a Congressional Study which used pages of empirical data to show that as the number of guns in the U.S. increased from 192 million in 1994 to 310 million in 2009, the “firearm-related murder and non-negligent homicide” rate plummeted. By 2011 the rate had fallen to less than half of what it was in 1993, although gun ownership continued to rise.
So, that’s news? An unknown New York pastor linked a study quoted by the Daily Kos regarding guns? There are several things troubling me concerning this Breitbart article.
First, I sited the studies via the Daily Kos article. The Breitbart article gives the impression that my blog post relies on the Daily Kos article. It doesn’t. The writer, Awr Hawkins ignores the fact that studies stand on their own. I provided a Daily Kos brief summery of a study and then directly cited another. Second, the Breitbart article gives the impression that the Daily Kos link is the center piece of my objection. It’s not. That’s just plain misleading. It paints my viewpoint in an inaccurate light.Third, my blog post is not specifically about AR-15 gun giveaways, but all gun giveaways. Even the first line of the article disagrees with the title. Fourth, if the tenor of the comment section is indicative of the readers of Breitbart.com, then that is a sad state of affairs.
All of this to say, what gives? And, why is the article under the “big government” section? I’m puzzled.
Well, that’s a first to be mentioned on Breitbart.com, but after reading the article it sure is a dubious honor.
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