As much as the Media Research Center loves to complain about the “liberal media” trying to allegedly “politicize” the Las Vegas mass shooting by talking about gun regulations, its “news” division CNSNews.com is no less guilty of it. A prime example is an Oct. 4 article by Susan Jones, written after it was revealed that several of the weapons the Las Vegas shooter used had a “bump stock” that allows semi-automatic weapons to emulate the action of a fully automatic weapon:
On June 7, 2010 — about a year and a half into the Barack Obama administration — the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives issued an opinion letter, giving the go-ahead to an after-market accessory that allows the user to “bump fire” a semi-automatic rifle.
A company called Slide Fire had earlier sent its patented replacement shoulder stock to ATF’s Firearms Technology Branch, asking for an evaluation of the device.
The ATF, in reply, wrote: “Your letter advises that the stock (referenced in this reply as a ‘bump stock’) is intended to assist persons whose hands have limited mobility to ‘bump fire’ an AR-15 type rifle.”
But that’s not the whole story. As PolitiFact details, the ATF didn’t so much approve the sale of the device as determine that it couldn’t be regulated under current law. While two bump-stock devices have been determined to be legal by the ATF in the past decade, two other similar devices were effectively banned. And Think Progress notes that the manufacturer may have misled the ATF by claiming it was only intended for use by disabled veterans.
So, Jones reported only half the story in order to score a political point against Obama (and couldn’t bring herself to say “President Obama”). That’s what CNS does.