From the Archives: It's not a "massacre", it's GUN DEATHS!

 

Gun Nonsense

Monday, April 17, 2007

I quickly became revolted by TV’s wall-to-wall coverage of the latest orgy of U.S. gun violence. NBC dubbed it the “Massacre at Virginia Tech”, which conjured up images of wild Indians with hatchets in hand scalping helpless white men. (Let’s hope the perpetrator isn’t a Native American.) 

Why not call it what it is. 

GUN DEATHS AT VIRGINIA TECH 

or 

COLLEGE SHOOTING SPREE 

Why? Because the National Rifle Association would be all over the network claiming unfair treatment of gun owners – or some such nonsense. In fact, it didn’t take long for NRA’s sycophants at Fox News to state that any talk about an assault weapons ban or any type of gun controls was “premature and even counterproductive”. 

Head ‘em off at the pass. 

During a phone interview with two rather clueless Virginia Tech students, a MSNBC anchor seemed determined to blame the entire episode on the college administration, as if they should have been able to predict the subsequent murder of 31 students after the first two victims went down. 

I suspect that well before midnight, the coverage will have devolved into a contest as to who can report the wildest rumors and conspiracy theories making he rounds of the Internet.

More from the archives:

Rhonda Byrne has a secret!  (10/8/2026)