Tuesday evening on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, Bill O’Reilly demonstrated just how ignorant he is when it comes to guns and gun laws. He was so insecure about his own thinking in regards to this that he hardly gave Rep. Jason Chaffetz opportunity to respond. But when Chaffetz did, he schooled O’Reilly in the No Spin Zone.
O’Reilly claimed that it “made sense” for the sale of all “heavy weapons” be reported to the FBI and that a law like that was “badly needed.” Now O’Reilly didn’t define exactly what he meant by that till the Congressman misunderstood what he said. Then he claimed he was speaking about “machine guns, mortars, howitzers.”
Now understand they were speaking in light of the Aurora, Colorado shooting. Not one of these devices were used in that shooting. James Holmes was armed with a shotgun, an AR-15, and two handguns.
O’Reilly said that people train at a flight school and the FBI is alerted. That must be news to the Department of Homeland Security who allowed 25 illegals to have flight training and an illegal alien to own the school. He then compared it to purchasing a machine gun and the FBI is not alerted.
For O’Reilly to claim that his show is the “No Spin Zone” he did a lot of spinning. Chaffetz rightly pointed out that you must get permission to purchase a machine gun. You need to pay a class three tax to ATF and there is a thorough background check.
In addition to that, when a person goes to purchase a firearm the FBI is not “alerted” per se. For instance, if one does not have a concealed carry permit then paperwork is filled out and kept on site. The FBI is contacted to make sure that you are eligible to purchase the firearm, but they are not to be keeping records of that phone call. However, if you have a concealed weapon permit, then you have already gone through a background check and you simply fill out paperwork, which stays on site, and go on your merry way.
When Chaffetz pointed out the need to receive what he called a “tax certificate,” which is what I refer to as a class three license, O’Reilly tried to spin again asking if he had been to a gun show as though that made a difference in the discussion. Chaffetz rightly pointed out that you can’t just walk into a gun show and buy a “bazooka” or a fully automatic machine gun.
O’Reilly stopped him in mid-sentence to claim that one could buy an AK-47 in this country and there would be no report of it. That is just a flat out lie. It isn’t spin. It’s a lie. AK-47′s are short range rifles and they can be obtained in the same manner that you obtain any other weapon. The only way there would be no reporting would be in states where you sell from one person to another privately and even then there is to be a paper record to protect both parties. Any purchase through a gun dealer whether it’s a .22 handgun or an AK-47 has paperwork involved and the individual has been checked out via the FBI or through their CCW background check.
Then O’Reilly gets to more than just “heavy weapons.” He begins talking about the 60K rounds of ammunition tha0t he alleges Holmes had acquired via the internet. In reality Holmes only had 6,000 rounds. According to the New York Times he purchased 3,000 rounds of .40, 3,000 rounds of .223 and 350 12 gauge shotgun shells. So I’m guessing he wants a law for that too.
He then claimed that if you sell “heavy weaponry” and then included “automatics, semi-automatics, ammunition” all you do is file with the FBI. OK, this is where he changed up things. Now, he’s substituted “howitzers, mortars and machine guns” for virtually every gun that is provided through a gun dealer.
O’Reilly wants the government surveilling citizens if they buy a particular quantity of ammunition. He was bent over 60,000. But what about 20,000? How about 10,0000? What if it was only 1,000? You get nearly that in one ammo can of .223.
Chaffetz again rightly points out that there is not going to be a FBI agent trailing every individual who buys a large bulk of ammunition. My goodness, we can’t even get them to learn from 9-11 and follow up on 25 illegals taking flight training. They certainly aren’t going to be going after ammunition buyers!
Bill then tries to imply the 60,000 rounds were purchased at once and calls them “heavy duty” rounds. O’Reilly, these were not .50 rounds. They weren’t even .45′s. They were 12 gauge shotgun rounds, .40 caliber rounds and .223 rounds. O’Reilly was just being sensational in all of this and reacting emotionally. He also keeps talking about an AK-47, which was not used in the shooting. It was a Smith & Wesson M&P15, which is an AR-15 rifle.
O’Reilly in continuing his rant about the AK-47, that was non-existent in the shooting, was filled with misinformation, as well as, he claimed only a handful of states required the reporting.
What was almost hilarious was O’Reilly’s claim that the congressman defines the gun laws and then proceeds to claim there are loopholes where there aren’t loopholes and Rep. Chaffetz continues to tell him that they have defined the laws and that O’Reilly is misinformed, which he is.
While Bill O’Reilly says he wouldn’t ban AK’s and that he supports the Second Amendment, he then says he would ‘report’ such purchases as ammunition. OK then if you wouldn’t ban AK’s why are you speaking of them as though they are some sort of terrible thing? Why do you make them out to be so bad? Furthermore, since we are guaranteed to be secure via the Fourth Amendment, would O’Reilly then be in favor of the FBI having to obtain a warrant before snooping around every person that purchased a particular type of firearm or purchased bulk ammunition?
You see my friends, this is what acting emotionally to a situation gets you. It gets you blathering like an idiot and contradicting yourself and misinforming the public on issues like this.
Bill, sorry, but at least in this article, the spin stops here. Chaffetz called you on it and I’m calling you on it. Until you are better informed on the subject you should keep silent on it.
