I have a google search set for GUNCONTROL and for GUNVIOLENCE just to keep up with the topic.

[flamin lib]

The GUNCONTROL search is interesting in that it has a lot of hits from pro-gun sources notably the NRA/ILA, guns.com, ammoland.com, breitbart, infowars and the other batshit crazy sites.

So, the NRA is all upset about President Obama's pardons. Obama Pardons More Gun-Toting Criminals proclaims the headline in America's First Freedom https://www.americas1stfreedom.org/articles/2016/12/21/obama-pardons-more-gun-toting-criminals/. Hmmm, I thought he was pardoning low level drug offenders. So I looked for some information on the lucky recipients of Obama's compassion.

I couldn't find the commutations but I did find the list of pardons from 2010 thru this year. https://www.justice.gov/pardon/obama-pardons There were 242 outright pardons issued and one would assume that the commutations would be roughly the same kind of crimes and circumstances. Of the 242 pardons 11 (eleven) involved a firearm. Most were in conjunction with 'possession and intent to distribute'. A few were for failing to pay a transfer tax on a weapon transfer and one or two were for felon possession of a firearm.

Eleven of 242 and considering the applications process and the scrutiny given applicants for pardon I'd suspect that there were significant extenuating circumstances for those 11 cases.

Still the NRA publication, wrongly named by the way, makes the blanket statement that the pardons involved 'gun-toting criminals' and other gunner sites repeat it verbatim until the echo chamber begins to cite the sites that repeat the cites.

If someone were foolish enough to engage in a discussion with a gunner and make such a blanket statement they would be immediately besieged with demands for empirical and irrefutable evidence to support it. Yet gunners just eat up any swill fed them by sympathetic sources.

The gun sellers tell them that $200+ suppressors (silencers) will save their hearing when the sound reduction in negligible but they believe it although the only real protection comes from a $20 over the ear headset.

Gun sellers tell them more guns make us safer when it is so often proven otherwise.

Gunners believe John Lott when he tells them there are 2 million defensive uses of guns annually even though he fabricated the data, falsely interpreted it and even masqueraded as a female college student to pump the positive reviews of his work.

I've posted about the propaganda techniques the NRA uses here http://www.democraticunderground.com/126211909.

Still, the NRA lies and they believe.

[billh58]

1. Planting lies and misinformation

and then repeating them over and over is the trademark NRA/ILA approach to marketing. Trump used the same tactic during his campaign, and the bigots, racists, and misogynists swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.

The "holier than thou" mindset of the Second Amendment absolutists, and right-wing gun lobby enablers are a menace to our society, and lies, misinformation, and fear-mongering propaganda are their main tools.