Chris Matthews wants you disarmed
He says so. Directly, publicly, with no shame and no consideration given to the fact that he's a public personality (I can't bring myself to call this pernicious excuse for a statist a journalist) with considerable reach to the public and potential influence, given the sheeple's desire to be spoonfed information without actually giving thought to its meaning.
h/t: News Busters
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Go ahead Deroy, you live in the city. I don't understand how we want to get on the subway at night knowing that everybody else in the subway is armed, and because I have a gun I'm OK.
DEROY MURDOCK: Well, there have been studies that have shown that in cities where there are concealed-carry laws, the gun, rather, the crime rate goes down because criminals are afraid that people may retaliate. As for this particular --
MATTHEWS: What do you think of that? What do you think of that? What's your view?
MURDOCK: On this race, what's interesting is that Romney --
MATTHEWS: You don't want to give me your view because it requires you to actually say what you think, because I'm asking you Deroy --
MURDOCK: I happen to agree with that. I think that --
MATTHEWS: You think we should have a concealed gun law in New York?
MURDOCK: Yah, I think that would probably be helpful. There are people who do conceal guns here, and to the extent that people think that criminals might be retaliated on, I think that helps keep the place safe. I would point out that Romney, who claims to be Mr. Second Amendment now, actually increased the cost for gun permits, and he claimed when he ran for governor that he wasn't a man of the NRA, and now that he's running for president he claims to be a lifetime member of the NRA -- lifetime being defined as joining in August of 2006. So even on the gun issue he's sort of all over the map.
MATTHEWS: You know what I think? In big cities they ought to check people on sidewalks like getting on airplanes. And why an airplane should be safer than an American sidewalk is crazy to me. Why you can walk down the sidewalk of an American city carrying a concealed weapon without a license is wacky.
MURDOCK: I think [you should have to have] a license.
MATTHEWS: But that's what's going on. I'm talking about a different point here. I want to see people disarmed. I want people disarmed in our major cities. How's that for a plan? I don't think we should all be armed, and I don't think more guns is the answer. I think it's wacky to say that the solution to armed robbery and killing in our streets in big cities is to put more arms in the streets. Anyway, thank you Deroy.
I'm accustomed to Matthews being a rude ass on his show. He doesn't allow Murdock to get in a word edgewise, essentially calls him a coward for not wanting to give "his view," while shrieking over Murdock as he attempts to present his view, and then proceeds to call him an idiot for believing that people should have a right to defend themselves from armed thugs.
Never mind the studies that show armed self defense saves lives - something to the tune of 2.5 million defense cases per year. Never mind that there has been nothing to show any correlation between rises in violence and concealed carry laws. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Never mind that states that severely limit the people's right to self defense have the highest numbers of homicides. In fact, San Francisco, which makes it nearly impossible to defend yourself with a gun legally, saw an increase in the number of murders from 2006 to 2007. So did Baltimore. And Chicago - with its total gun ban didn't see any change at all. There were 201 people killed in 2006, and the same exact number perished in 2007. Meanwhile, Houston, saw a significant drop in the number of homicides form 2006 to 2006. In 2006, Houston saw 202 murders. That number went down to 172 in 2007. San Antonio dropped from 67 to 64 murders, while Vegas stayed steady. Of course, I'll qualify this by saying that these numbers from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports are still preliminary, are not broken down by type of homicide or what weapon was used.
Nonetheless, what they do NOT indicate is any correlation between the presence of guns and the number of murders. Therefore, what harm would it do to give currently vulnerable, law-abiding citizens of New York a real chance at defending themselves?
Matthews, however, ignores these facts in favor of his own biases and fears, choosing instead to holler at the top of his lungs at Murdock, while hurling ad hominem attacks in his direction. No doubt some of the great unwashed who listened to the broadcast will nod their collective heads in agreement based sorely on the fact that Matthews outscreamed Murdock and spewed forth much more emotionalist rhetoric than Murdock. But as a member of the media, Matthews should exhibit a bit more self control, objectivity and factual analysis.
