David Brock, Media Matters and gun control hypocrisy

"George Soros and a lot of groups connected to gun control are funding this group, and they wouldn't be too happy that an employee of Media Matters was carrying a gun, especially when it was illegal in D.C."

by John Lott

David, say it isn't so!

The news from the Daily Caller website is surprising: David Brock, the founder of Media Matters, had a personal assistant illegally publicly carry a concealed handgun in the District of Columbia in order "to protect Brock from threats.” Few organizations have declared their opposition to gun ownership or concealed carry laws as strongly as Media Matters.

The group's opposition to guns has largely been a “scorched earth” approach, demonizing supporters of gun ownership and concealed handgun laws.

According to Media Matters, laws letting law-abiding citizens carry concealed handguns for protection are "dangerous." They assert these citizens "endanger" police officers and "compromise public safety." And derisively refer to the “cult of victimhood,” where crime victims and defensive gun uses are pointed at to justify gun ownership. They claim that it is a “myth” that concealed handguns reduce crime and label those who disagree “extremist”.

Of course, Media Matters never mentions the published research finding that right-to-carry laws reduce murders of police officers.

Nor do they mention that there has been a total of 29 peer reviewed studies by economists and criminologists, 18 supporting the hypothesis that shall-issue laws reduce crime, 10 finding no significant effect on crime, and that just one claims that right-to-carry laws temporarily increases one type of violent crime, aggravated assault (a summary is available here).

Ironically, for a media organization, neither Media Matters nor David Brock returned multiple calls from me about the Daily Caller story.

No explanation has been offered by the group explaining why Brock has an assistant carry a gun to protect him if he really believes all the postings put out by his organization.

No explanation was provided for why Media Matters advocates punishing permit holders who accidentally carry permitted concealed handguns into gun-free zones, but simultaneously think that it is fine for their organization to carry guns in Washington, D.C. where no other civilians are allowed to do so by law.

It doesn't stop there. Media Matters continually engages in name-calling, misquotes, and selectively edits statements. It has even posted doctored photos of opponents. For example, I am referred to by the group as “the gun lobby’s apologist-in-chief” and they assert my “apparent disregard for scientific rigor.”

In one interview that I did with Fox News chief judicial analyst and former "Freedom Watch" anchor Judge Andrew Napolitano, the group inaccurately asserted: “Napolitano and John Lott advocate for allowing people to carry concealed guns without permits.”

In another example, Media Matters falsely claimed that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has written that prohibitions on carrying concealed weapons are constitutional.

But Scalia was merely stating those regulations were outside of the Washington, D.C. handgun and gunlock case that they were considering. He was only making it clear that the concealed handgun issue was not an issue before the court (see bottom of page 54).

And now, with the Daily Caller's revelations this week, Brock joins a long line of gun control advocates who take the "do as I say, not as I do" approach to guns....

Click here to read the entire article at FoxNews.com.