Media Miss Irony of Anti-Gun Rep. William Jefferson Possessing Firearms

Posted on NewsBusters by Noel Sheppard on 6/9/2007: Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) was ordered by a U.S. district judge to surrender his firearms Friday. Yet, media outlets that reported this ignored the delicious irony inherent in the Congressman’s anti-gun positions throughout his career.

As reported by the Associated Press Friday (h/t Marc Sheppard, emphasis added): “As conditions for his release, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III denied the Congressman access to shotguns and rifles in his Louisiana home.”

ABCNews.com also reported this interesting revelation (emphasis added): Jefferson will also have to surrender guns he has at his home in New Orleans. Jefferson said he had several rifles and shotguns.

On the television side, CNN did at least three reports Friday about Jefferson that included his gun possession, starting with “CNN Newsroom” during the 10AM EST hour:

TONY HARRIS, HOST: Right. And Brianna, Jefferson wants to keep his firearms?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CORRESPONDENT: He didn't say he wants to keep them, but this is an interesting -- this was an interesting moment in court. He does have firearms. The judge asked him about this. He has rifles and guns that he says are for hunting. He says he's been hunting since he was 10 years old. What normally happens, if you come up on charges, you're not allowed to have possession of weapons, use weapons. So, he's going to have to figure out something. His attorney, and the prosecution, are going to have to figure out a way to take those guns out of his possession or lock them up in a way that he doesn't have access to them.
HARRIS: Gotcha.

As far as the broadcast networks, only the “CBS Evening News” felt this court proceeding was at all newsworthy, and its producers totally ignored the gun issue. Yet, most important, none of the reports that did include the firearms story pointed out Jefferson’s strong anti-gun positions in the past, an irony that was certainly not lost on the American Thinker’s Marc Sheppard (emphasis added):

But the specter of a gun-toting gun opponent raises some rather curious questions, wouldn't you say?

You might ask yourself, what does a man who, in 2005, voted against a bill to protect law-abiding gun dealers and manufacturers from litigation blaming them for criminal misuse of their products by others, need with rifles? Did he own them when he voted against similar law in 2003?

Why would a legislator with an anti-Second-Amendment voting record that earned him an NRA rating identical to that of Chuckie Schumer and Nancy Pelosi own multiple shotguns?

For those interested, that rating by the NRA for Jefferson is an “F.”

Yet, these media outlets seemed happy to dismiss a controversy that they weren’t willing to address by informing readers that when asked by the judge about these guns, Jefferson replied, “I've been hunting since I was 10 years old."

Hmm. Isn’t that what gun advocates say about their own arsenals?

Toward that end, Marc made a bulls eye with his parting shot: Naturally, had the camo-clothed Liberal been involved in an accidental discharge while stalking gallinules on the Bayou one hot summer's morn', there'd have been no one to blame but Remington.
How marvelous.

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