Much has been in the news lately regarding gun rights and the nature of our nation’s school security. The political climate has brought about passionate arguments on both sides of the debate, especially from grieving students. However, in my opinion, the mainstream media has mostly only given credence to one side of this debate which is indicative of a larger bias within the dominant news outlets across the country.
Throughout the last week, the mainstream media have pushed the narrative that the National Rifle Association and the GOP are supposedly complicit in the horrendous Florida school shooting that left 17 dead. Their criticisms go something like this: “The NRA donates millions of dollars to Republican campaigns and, therefore, any refusal to act on gun control legislation by the Republican-controlled Congress proves that Republicans are puppets to the NRA.” This logic is foolish because it assumes that Republican lawmakers were anti-gun before the NRA donations and suddenly became pro-gun after receiving said donations. Conservatives have always been the defenders of individual rights, including those in the Second Amendment.
Most importantly, gun-control advocates ignore the fact that the FBI did not follow protocols in investigating the shooter despite being warned several times of his intentions. If CNN can track down the Reddit user who created a Trump wrestling GIF last summer, how is it that our own FBI was unable to track down the Florida shooter despite being given his YouTube account with his real name? We should focus on correcting the FBI’s investigative mechanisms as information comes out, rather resorting to empty rhetoric about “gun control” that offers no specific proposals.