Mike Lupica, not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to guns. Yet, he wants to advise us on what firearms we should and should not have when it comes to self-defense. (Photo: National Review)
Yeah, so it happened yet again. Another anti-gun zealot displayed his ignorance when talking about firearms. Well, it’s either extreme ignorance or a deliberate attempt to confuse the public by conflating semiautomatic rifles, like the widely popular and commonly owned AR-15, with fully automatic weapons like the military’s M16, which are prohibitively expensive and highly restricted NFA-regulated items.
Here’s what Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News had to say about the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, this past Sunday:
The flyers on the table feature a picture of a beautiful, smiling girl with a pink bow in her hair, with Christmas and her whole life ahead of her until Adam Lanza walked into her school on a Friday morning with an automatic weapon — the kind of gun we are told must be protected or the Second Amendment is turned into a dishrag — and started shooting.
Nope. Wrong! Adam Lanza did not have an “automatic” weapon. He had a semiautomatic rifle, a Bushmaster XM15-E2S, and a semiautomatic handgun, a Glock 20SF, according to investigators. No automatic weapon was used in the commission of that terrible tragedy. And gun grabbers wonder why we don’t take them seriously.
Some advice: Mr. Lupica, get your facts straight! Get to the range and get some firsthand experience with firearms. Know what it is you’re talking about before you start advising the rest of us on what firearms we should and shouldn’t have when it comes to protecting ourselves, our families and our property. Otherwise, you just look like an ignorant boob.
For more on this, Charles C.W. Cooke wrote a great response piece called “Why Gun-Control Advocates Lie About Guns.” Check it out.
Seriously? Im a card carrying nra member, I have multiple ‘black’ rifles, a crap ton of handguns ammo and I love shooting. Having said all that, your rationale for pouncing on this anti gun wacko is pretty stupid. OK, he didn’t get the terminology right between a semi and full auto….. who gives a shit!!
How about focusing on the actual logic of his argument (which is completely weak) and tearing that apart?
When you make a sensational sounding article out of a semantics issue, it makes all of us look stupid.
If we are to criticize the anti-gun movement for misrepresenting facts, it would help if we stayed grounded in fact, told the truth, and avoided bizarre and ridiculous positions. This kind of “flat earth” or “no holocaust” posturing makes us the laughingstock of all reasonable people…. W. I. Capps, MD, JD
sorry to throw a rotten spud at sandy hook, but if yo all will google “sandy hook hoax” you may be enlightened as to how far the government will go to get our guns.. Sandy hook was a staged event and many of the same people “acting” in the school shooting were involved in the aurora theater shooting and the boston marathon bombing. You probably think I am a conspiracy nut by now, but just because you don’t put credence in my story doesn’t mean it isn’t true. google it and judge for yourselves. I am not going to argue with you about it. This is my own personal view.
If it’s on the internet it must be true, right? Type in Santorum and tell me if that’s true also. Get a Life people.
May have been set up by the Gov, don’t know, but there were real, shot, dead children. A VERY close, friend, a young man that calls me Dad, he’s not my biological son, but a son of my heart, is a Connecticut State Trooper and one of first on the scene. If he says it, I’d stake my life on it. He was sickened by what he witnessed.
“Most newspaper people are shit-filled, phony sons of bitches looking for threads from which they will weave a fairytale. Don’t trust them, and if they are in your area, don’t let them out of your sight.” ~ H. G. Duncan U. S. Marine Corps (Retired)
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The press/media almost never get it right. Firearms are too technical for the majority of those not personally knowledgable of them. I’m not excusing them, they have a responsibility to make the effort to know what they are reporting. Expecting the media, especially the liberal arts schooled and too often liberal media to report accurately on firearms is akin to expecting them to speak knowledgeably about aviation, tool and die making or any other technical subject. These folks generally are pencil pushers, paper jockeys who talk to folks for a living and try to turn what they gather into something that gets a byline from their editor who is interested in sales and paid advertisers.
My local news drives me crazy. They had an article about local flood warnings out today and couldn’t even get the counties the reservoirs and rivers were in right. State issued the alert and they couldn’t even pass it on correctly. How on earth can you trust anything they report in a he said she said or deep fact finding story. Feels more and more like a post factual world, Yikes!
Give it a rest. Don’t expect every person in the world to know niceties of usage such as the difference between “automatic” and “semiautomatic.” Common (if incorrect) usage calls firearms like the AR-15 and Colt 1911 “automatic” weapons. If the journalist had used the phrase “machine gun,” then you’d have something to complain about.
When this first happened I wanted to know the details. I found a local Sandy Hook CBS affiliate news station, and they reported that the AK rifle was found in the back seat of the vehicle, and never left the car. The local police chief in an interview confirmed this at the time, and said that the carnage was committed with multiple handguns. I copied and posted this to FB. After 4 days FB removed my post. So I proceeded to research the archives of the local CBS station for the original report, and it no longer exists. Cover up? Hell yes, and it’s despicable. Instead of focusing on the tragic facts of the event, the media is complicit in changing the facts for political reasons. Unless the local police chief and the news station lied in the original report, I am guessing autopsy evidence will prove that the AR was never used and the case against Bushmaster will go away, but the facts will never be presented openly to the public.
uh…are you joking? you do realize they already did the autopsies, and found bullets and shell casings from the AR(not AK) right? how can you believe these insane conspiracy theories, like the rest of these teenagers who watch those pathetic youtube videos(all of which have been thoroughly debunked) from the day after the shooting, when countless false leads and misinformation were coming out? EVERY tragedy like this has multiple, and conflicting stories in the early hours of the events, because no one has time to check their sources, and are just going off what they hear. it doesn’t mean there is some massive conspiracy, involving thousands of people, from school officials, to entire families of victims, to police and other emergency responders, hospital staffs, government officials, and thousands of media personnel, who’s JOB it is to find the truth, and would win a freaking pulitzer prize for exposing such a massive conspiracy.
I concur, I’ve said all along to everyone who talks about Sandy Hook, the news did in fact report the AR 15 as being as I recall in the trunk of the vehicle and only hand guns were used, for all we know, the perp may not have known the AR was in the trunk as he never took it out! How about researching news reports of the original on air report which states this the AR 15 was in the vehicle where it was doesn’t matter, fact is it was reported as not being used! That fact I’m sure of was reported in the news, too bad I did not record what was said at the time! You can’t trust the news, since Trump won and you sure as Hades can’t trust Democrats and the Left! I’d be more than happy to go to any court hearing and testify for the gun industry as to what was reported that fateful day! It’s not the gun that’s the cause, it’s the person who is pulling the trigger! It don’t matter what weapon is used, the perp will use what ever is available to them at the time they decide to act! Let’s ban knives, vehicles, bats, pipes, oh yes liberal idiots are also a good one, Democrats and Republicans who are anti Constution anti gun idiots!
no one died at Sandy Hoax. are you that stupid
you don’t realize it was just another anti-gun
DHS scam? the official 2012 FBI report admits
no one died in Newton, CT that year. just google
“Sandy Hook hoax” or “Sandy Hook Scam” and
you’ll see endless PROOF no one died. the whole
production was so poorly done it is very obvious.
why are you promoting government scams like this?
It’s Newtown, not Newton and people did die. Get your meds adjusted and get your facts straight.
Some people have so much faith in the media, people like Peter just can’t believe it’s true.
Here you go Peter, grab some education.
I’m not asking you to take the blue or red pill, but just simply watch this.
Better hold onto your panties. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=sIoPjfLnEFY