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By Sara Tipton

Last week, Melissa Harris-Perry expressed concern about firearm ownership and the relaxing of  gun laws nationwide. Her conclusion: more police lives are going to be in danger if gun laws are loosened. Harris-Perry said, “Is is possible that our lack of national, common sense gun control laws leads to a situation where it is more dangerous to be a police officer and so police officers begin acting in ways that they expect everyone to be armed?”  But then she went further . . .

She also presented statistics from a report compiled by the Department of Justice on police activities in New York and Chicago, although she specifically focused her attention on the Philadelphia police department.

What she neglected to mention, however, that the DOJ report she quoted mentions two cities with extremely low concealed carry rates.

John Jay College’s Jon Shane alluded to these things when answered Harris-Perry’s questions by pointing out the need for “context.” He told her guns are not a new thing, that they have always been part of American society and “always will, and have always been a factor that’s trained on in policing tactics.”

And because he made his point successfully, Harris-Perry shifted the conversation away from how more law-abiding citizens with guns put police lives in danger and focused instead on how police are racially biased.

She ultimately concluded, “I guess part of what I will say is my concern that because of racial stereotyping that creates implicit bias, that for officers who are making a judgement call about whether they are in fear, that an African-American male body can be perceived as more dangerous than it actually, empirically is.”

What she didn’t say –  what probably never occurred to her at all – is that given the rate of black-on-black crime, more concealed weapons in the hands of law-abiding African-Americans (or any race, for that matter) would result in more lives saved. If that’s her ultimately concern, you’d think she’d be in favor of more lawful gun ownership in the black community. I wonder why that didn’t come up in her presentation.

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74 COMMENTS

  1. The new Chief of Police in Detroit suggested residents protect themselves. Justifiable homicides went up and crime went down in 2014. That sort of data is omitted from such reports, however.

    • All of you need to stop using facts and logic. You keep on doing that and the next thing you know, people will stop believing what they read and hear in mainstream media.

      Do it for the children!!

  3. Melissa Harris-Perry is as concerned about cops as I am about the new rules for international water polo. She also knows less about guns than I know about international water polo.

    Do they actually play polo in water? Wouldn’t the horses drown?

  4. Maybe if all cops went into every situation expecting to find a weapon they wouldn’t be so damn untrained and surprised when one does show up. They could then deal with the situation in a calm, not shoot every bullet in all magazines manner.

    That would save lives.

    • I was involved in a minor traffic accident yesterday which turned into a hit n run. After the cops showed up, he asked me for my registration and insurance, which I keep under the seat of my motorcycle. I also keep a 9mm there as well (for those about to scream “OFF BODY CARRY” or some other such nonsense, I was coming home from classes at ASU). I told the cop “before I take the seat off I want you to know there’s a handgun there. Is that ok?” He looked at me like he could not have cared less and said ‘yeah that’s fine’. So I took the seat off and let the gun sit out in the open the whole time. After everything was done, I couldn’t find the key to the bike so one of the bystanders who stopped to help offered me a ride home. “Do you want to get your gun first?” she asked.

      I love Arizona.

      • A couple of years ago, I had an accident while I was pedaling my bike home from work. The cops showed up to see if I was okay (I was). I casually mentioned to the officer that I was carrying. He gave me a look that said that he could not have cared less. He never even asked for my license.

        Some towns in Massachusetts are like that. Yeah, Massachusetts.

      • When ever I get stopped for any reason I hand them my drivers license,Insurance and CCW card. I never say the word GUN. I let the card talk for me. Also I feel this helps establish that I’m not some miscreant. Never had a citation or “search”.

    • LOL… It sure has heck looks like it, must be a heavy month… 🙂

      But those rags on her ears go very well with the BC’s she’s sporting… Do people really listen to mouth breathing nerds like this? Yet another useful idiot happily wallowing in her willful ignorance… For the children of course…

    • You guys hadn’t heard about that? That stunt is her chief claim to intellectual, incisive, thought-provoking journalistic fame. Well, that and mocking an adopted black infant.

    • You beat me to it. The first thing I saw when I opened the link. As retarded as she is, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were tampons for real.

      • They are. She did it. I forget what the “idea” behind it was supposed to be. Not that it matters.

    • ROFLMAO!!!! Had to look, and yes she is! I guess anyone that does wear the mini tampon earrings adds to their credibility on that network. Gotta love the chutzpah of the progs….

    • She’s a real, honest to God, “Bunny-Ears Lawyer” –I always thought that character trope was purely fictional.

  6. Poor M H-P. There’s just not much going on between those tampons.

  7. “I wonder why that didn’t come up in her presentation.”

    Many would say it’s because MHP is a race hustling, hate profiteering, weapons-grade piece of shit… but I couldn’t possibly comment.

  8. We are trying to protect you from something that has been part of our nation far longer than police themselves have, but we also hate you, you racist bigots.

  9. So a lack of gun laws lead to more concealed carriers which leads to more guns on the streets which leads to police showing racial bias against minorities. Uh-huh. Don’t think so.

  10. Give Ms. Perry what she wants. *Poof* the 2A is gone, private ownership is banned, confiscation has already occurred.
    Cops will all of a sudden not treat every individual approached as though they are potentially armed?
    Plenty of people with pagers and squirt guns were killed by cops during the AWB. Cops shoot people in bed rolling over to comply with officer direction. Cops shoot chihuauas locked in kennels. But of course they do so because of my rights.

    As an aside she’s basically saying the police hate us for our freedoms Al Queda style. I can get with that. Though I do not agree that doing away with our freedoms is a prudent solution.

  11. I looked up some videos on this woman as I’ve heard of her rhetoric yet never heard her. Couldn’t get over the Sylvester the cat voice.

  13. Ah, liberals; “Only cops should have guns!!!!” / “Cops are killing black people!!!!”

  14. And I care about what some mouthy skirt with an opinion says? Hardly. I’m not even going to read what she says. It’s the same old tired rhetoric.

  17. Yet another reason why I don’t watch cable TV “news.” Aren’t MSNBC’s ratings going deeper in the toilet every year?

  21. I don’t think empirically means what she thinks it means, given empirical data about black males.

  22. If she’s worried about poor blacks, she should support both of these:

    1. Give anyone under 150% of the poverty level a refundable tax credit of $500 for purchasing and training with a self-defense weapon.
    2. Enshrine in law that if the cops are in the wrong place and/or grabbing the wrong people, if those people shoot the cops in self-defense, there is no crime.

  24. Her arguments are old and tired, being refuted many times over. She is a broken record and nothing more than a mouthpiece for Bloomberg crowd.

  25. Im tired of people using “police safety” as a soapbox to stand on.

    Police deaths via gun death are at record, historical lows, alongside the violent crime rate, despite millions of guns being sold since 2000.

    So, in a nut shell, suck it up buttercup. Your job as a police officer is far safer than many other professions.

  26. MPH is the dumbest personality on TV.

    It probably didn’t dawn on “tampon earrings girl” that the vast majority – as in all – of inner city criminals carrying guns do not have a license for concealed carry.

  27. “that an African-American male body can be perceived as more dangerous than it actually, empirically is”….well, sorry to break it to you Melissa, but statistically black males are commiting violent crimes at rates far exceeding every other demographic. So, empirically, they are more dangerous.

  28. The biggest mistake people like Harris-Perry continue to make is ignoring the fact that criminals, not guns, commit crimes. Criminals already ignore the guns laws we currently have on the books, while law-abiding folks (by definition) abide by those laws. Relaxing gun laws will not cause criminals to commit more crimes, nor will it cause law-abiding folks to begin committing crimes. Common sense truly has become uncommon these days.

    • By definition:
      Today’s “Common Sense” = Yesterday’s “Nonsense”
      ,
      Liber-Logic requires its users to reverse the meaning.
      .

      • That’s why I think the term “progressive” is a misnomer; it should be ‘regressive’, as in back to pre-Revolutionary War times under The Kings rule.

  29. Is is possible that our lack of national, common sense gun control laws leads to a situation where it is more dangerous to be a police officer and so police officers begin acting in ways that they expect everyone to be armed?”

    Common-sense. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. /inigomontoya

    Also what’s wrong with officers acting that they expect everyone to be armed? Isn’t that the ideal? they’d certainly be less enthusiastic about acting thuggish and abusive. Here in Florida it’s pretty much a given and cops are going to treat everyone as if they’re armed. And you know what? It’s working ok.

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