Twisted coverage and myths shot down 'guns-in-bars' bill
Alan Korwin
My Turn
Arizona Republic
May 23, 2005

Why on Earth would the National Rifle Association promote laws so "gun-toting" people could "pack heat" in bars and not drink?

Say what? That doesn't even make sense. It's beyond stupid. And in fact, the NRA promoted no such thing.

But you wouldn't know it from reading the papers or following newscasts.

The inaccurately characterized "guns-in-bars" bill received twisted coverage, using derision and phony Wild West mythology, from reporters and editors who earned rebuke for such unethical spin.

While reporters cried wolf and instilled fear in a public they misinformed, 70,000 FBI-certified Arizonans, licensed to discreetly carry firearms, just hoped they would finally be allowed to eat meals in normal restaurants without leaving their guns in their cars as current law requires.

They know it's a bad law that leaves them defenseless. They know criminals routinely steal guns from cars.

Rather than deal with important issues - self-defense and civil rights - on the merits, reporters deceived you, and wrote in a gun-o-phobic way that cries out, literally, for medical attention. Editors who allowed frequent demeaning slurs deserve reprimands.

Dignified treatment? The news foisted silliness about shotguns in nightclubs. This was really the Breakfast-at-Denny's bill, because Denny's has a liquor license. It was lunch at Applebee's, with no drinking allowed. But newspeople didn't want you to understand that, because if you did, you might support it, as 34 other states do, without problems. The media instead fed you hokum:

If CCW holders (and all innocent gun owners) can have guns in restaurants, blood will run in the aisles.

How long will the media promote this nonsense?

They said it 10 years ago when the CCW law passed. It has been proven false. Get off it already. It is the terrified psychological projection of "hoplophobes," people with irrational, morbid fear of guns. It's time to remove such bigotry from newsrooms.

Banning guns in restaurants makes everyone safer.

To believe this, you must believe hoodlums and psychopaths stay out thanks to door signs.

C'mon. Gun-free zones with no security provided are a hoax, known to be dangerous. The only people stopped are honest ones.

Disarming innocent people is an act of violence. Criminals remain armed under such fraudulent, feel-good fantasies. People who create these reckless zones should be held liable for any harm they cause.

Here's the ugly non-secret - shopkeepers take no steps whatsoever to keep out armed criminals - they just come and go. Storeowners know it.

Lobbyists' desires are more important than your rights.

The right to arms is precious, time-honored, exceedingly valuable. Guns save lives. Guns stop crimes. Guns are why America is still free.

Liquor lobbyists (a fine group to set moral standards), adamantly refused to change the liquor laws to neatly separate restaurants from other liquor vendors. Media bigots hide this from you. Gov. Janet Napolitano bowed to them.

Arizonans who want, and have a right, to keep their safety tools with them as they travel, eat and work were crushed by elitists who hate guns and hate Americans' gun rights.

It's not good to hate.

I've documented many similar news-media abuses, about the Minuteman Project, the new school gun-safety program and more, at my Web site, gunlaws.com.

They can't win with facts, so they deceive.

Disgraceful.



The writer lives in Phoenix. He is the author of seven books on gun law, including The Arizona Gun Owner's Guide. He can be reached at [email protected].

www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0523korwin23.html

I know a guy who just got a G19 from his dad.  He told me that he set it on the bar when he went drinking the other day.

The bar tender didn't even know that it was illegal.  Nothing happened.