More Ammunition For The CNN Irresponsible Journalism Argument

CNN has another breathless "OBAMA WILL TAKE YOUR GUNS BUY NOW!" story.

Gun shops across the country are reporting a run on ammunition, a phenomenon apparently driven by fear that the Obama administration will increase taxes on bullets or enact new gun-control measures.

"In the last two months it's gotten very, very difficult to find ammunition," says Richard Taylor, manager of The Firing Line, a gun shop and shooting range in the Denver, Colorado, suburbs.

"There are a lot of rumors floating around that the present government would like to increase taxes on ammunition. I think [there is] just a lot of panicked buying going on."

Now, that's twice in three paragraphs we get the "increased taxes on bullets" rumor. CNN does nothing to quash this. Then they go on feeding the beast.

While campaigning for the White House, Obama supported re-enacting the now-expired ban on assault weapons. But there is no indication that the administration will take up that measure -- or any other gun-control initiative --anytime soon.

It was nice of CNN to be responsible and mention that the unsubstantiated and patently false rumor in the lead paragraph was actually unsubstantiated and false...three paragraphs later.

If you think that's bad, check out CNN's report on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defending the report that right-wing domestic terrorists may pose a threat to the country. You get no mention that Obama has no plans for gun control legislation at all, only that the report "warned that the groups may use proposed restrictions on firearms" as "recruiting tools" without mentioning that there basically ARE no proposed additional gun control laws at this time. Then you get several paragraphs of verbatim Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage spouting lies, plus some pretty brutal attacks on Napolitano by the American Legion. Only at the very end of the article do you get the truth:

The Obama administration in January issued a warning about left-wing extremists. Both reports were initiated during the administration of President George W. Bush.

But CNN seems dumbfounded about why people are buy ammo by the caseload. 1,700+ news articles about the "Obama gun ban" in Google News search, over a 100 articles on the "Obama ammo tax", like this doozy from, of all places, KHON in Honolulu.

Across the nation, ammunition has been selling like emergency supplies before a hurricane.

"All the national stores are being cleared out," said Art Ong, Magnum Firearms Owner.

Ong saw it coming.

"Fortunately I've been able to locate supplies from the west coast and east coast and have been shipping in large quantities," said Ong.

But once these are gone, there could be a long wait.

Suppliers have said there's a six month to a year and a half long backorder for ammunition.

Ever since President Obama was elected, ammo sales have skyrocketed, fueled by fears of higher taxes.

"We have a lot of people purchasing ammunition in large quantities in anticipation of a large excise tax of 500-1000%. Kind of like the cigarette buyers, before the big tax stamp was put on the cigarettes probably were hoarding cigarettes the same way," said Ong.

It of course hasn't occurred to any of the crack journalists in our country that gun store owners, gun makers, and ammo makers are making a killing (literally) on this stuff, and have every reason to perpetuate these rumors for as long as they continue to profit madly on them, flooding the country with new guns and more and more ammo.

But that of course would never raise the danger of anyone getting hurt or using this stuff in anger, and I'm 100% sure the NRA will personally make sure all these new gun owners are properly trained on firearm storage, safety, and usage. So there's no problem here!

[UPDATE] Bonus FOX News subliminal messaging!