11.19.14
The passage of I 594 in Washington was the result of many things, but not least was the assistance of a complicit media that consistently lied and misled the public about the measure.
While there was widespread opposition to I 594 by law enforcement, the establishment press virtually ignored that fact. The reality that the measure was bankrolled by a few anti-rights billionaires also received less than stellar attention.
Although the media insisted it was all about stopping crime and keeping guns away from the mentally ill they intentionally ignored the ramifications that gun rights advocates warned of.
We saw the same kind of agenda driven “reporting” across Oregon when Ballot Measure 5 was being debated in 2000. This is the measure that ended private transfers of firearms at “gun shows” and vastly expanded the state’s gun registration system. Virtually every major “news” outlet blatantly lied about the measure and, in doing so, helped pass one of the most damaging ballot measures in Oregon history.
2015 promises to be no different. The media hucksterism has already begun even before a bill has been introduced in the legislature or a ballot measure has been filed.
On November 17th, the Oregon Firearms Federation received a call from a “reporter” named Hillary Borrud . An audio of the call is at the bottom of this story. She claimed to interested in the chances of a universal background check/registration bill passing in the 2015 session. She specifically wanted to know if we saw “any problems” with that kind of legislation.
We called Borrud back and pointed out to her that yes,there were clearly problems with extending background checks to guns being transferred between family members and friends.
That the idea that you could not lend a firearm to a person in danger made little sense.
That the notion that you could not safeguard a firearm for a neighbor when they left town or leave a gun with your girlfriend or boyfriend was absurd.
That the fact that firearms instructors would be forbidden from allowing students to shoot any gun they had not brought to class themselves was dangerous and counter-productive.
But mostly we pointed out the reality that Oregon has proven over and over that background checks stop virtually no criminals or mentally ill persons, while preventing countless qualified people from completing legal transfers. In the old days, that would have been called “a story.” But not to Hillary.
Hillary already had an angle. She had an agenda. Facts were not going to get in the way of a quick completion of her already forged conclusion. The epic failure that the background check system is should be something any responsible reporter would be eager to learn more about and report on. But you see, that takes “work.” And in this case, it didn’t even take a lot of work. In fact, all it took was for her to look at the reporting OFF has already done on this issue using the Oregon State Police’s own numbers and charts.
You can see those here and here.
All this info was provided to Borrud. She saw it on our website. All she had to do was read it. She said these were “allegations”. When it was pointed out the charts in the Nov 16 alert were the OSP’s own charts, she was not interested. She would not contact the OSP to determine if what we were saying was true. She was too busy.
And this is how “reporting” is done these days. An amazingly lazy employee creates a narrative in her own mind that suits her own bias. She scribbles a few lines and misquotes a few people. Important information that is spoon fed to her is ignored. And the people reading her tripe are misinformed.
Expect a lot more of this as the battle over government gun registration and confiscation heats up in 2015.
Here is the pointless story published in the Eastern Oregonian . An identical version appeared in the Blue Mountain Eagle. If it weren’t for the “comments” section the readers of these papers would have no idea what a waste of a salary employees like Borrud are.
Hillary’s message: