By Scott Tibbs, September 26, 2013
Rachel Maddow opened her show on September 16 by saying this:
| Today's mass shooting at the Navy yard facility in southeast Washington D.C. makes today the deadliest day in our nation's capital in more than 30 years. |
I am pretty sure that there was a higher death toll on September 11. Did she forget that one?
Maddow also complained about gun laws that are (in her opinion) not restrictive enough, because sex offenders and felons can carry guns. It's important to note that there have been cases where being cited for public urination has put someone on the sex offender registry. Obviously, government has an interest in not allowing violent sex offenders to carry guns, but a blanket ban is not the answer.
Of course, there is also the question of why violent sex offenders are not in prison.
As far as allowing convicted felons to carry guns, not all felonies are from violent crimes. Non-violent felonies like fraud, check deception and identity theft do not necessarily make someone too dangerous to carry a firearm. Equating all felons to murderers and rapists is either ignorant or willfully dishonest - and it is almost certainly the latter. Maddow is smart enough to know what she's saying is simply not in line with reality.
Maddow is better than such simplistic thinking.
