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I recently ripped the Huffington Post’s pet firearms enthusiast a new you-know-what. My post The Truth About Mike “The Gun Guy” Weisser slated the anti-ballistic Bay Stater for telling doctors to warn patients not to keep a gun in the home. Mike got the memo. Check the headline hovering over his latest “common sense” gun control screed: A New Video Tells the Truth About Guns and Some Folks Don’t Like It. Again, we own rights to that phrase. Again, we’re not going there. In fact, TTAG owes Mike a debt of gratitude for bringing our brand to the attention of the HuffPo’s hoplophobic readers. Thanks Mike! Now about that post . . .

Mike’s defending the Public Service Announcement that encouraged youngsters to break the law. Well several laws. We’ve already taken the video to the proverbial wood shed in our post Gun Control Cultists Call for Children to Steal Parents’ Firearms, Bring Them to Schools. But WTH. Let’s examine MTGGW’s take on a video so bone-headed even the Campaign to Stop Gun Violence disavowed it (after recommending that it be shortened for impact).

Know what crime wasn’t depicted in the video? The crime that would have occurred if that same kid had taken his mother’s gun to school, walked into a classroom and opened fire at other students and adults. How do you think that Jaylen Fryberg got his hands on the gun he used to kill four students at Marysville High School on October 24? And it really didn’t matter how many other crimes Fryberg committed that day in order to bring the gun into the school because after shooting the four other kids, he then used the gun to kill himself.

This PSA video has provoked such an intense reaction from the pro-gun community because it strikes directly at their most sacred cow, namely, the idea that guns in homes make us more safe. The gun industry has been tirelessly promoting this crap for the last 20 years ever since they noticed that the traditional reason for owning guns — sport shooting and hunting — were beginning to fade away. But if you can make people believe that the protection afforded by a gun far outweighs the risk of that weapon lying around, you’ve created a new and unending market for guns.

If you’d like to examine the dubious math Mike “The Guy Guy” uses to discourage people from buying guns, feel free to click over to the HuffPo. Suffice it to say, you know what statistic wasn’t mentioned in his article? The number of defensive gun uses in America. Even the lowest estimate for which is 60k per year (the highest is over two million). Not to coin a phrase, it’s the inconvenient truth about guns.

I happen to think that Stop Gun Violence is the best gun PSA I have ever seen. It says what we all know, namely, that a gun in the home is a safety risk and an unlocked gun is a much greater risk. I notice that all the critics who were busily counting up the felonies depicted in the film forgot to mention that in most states, leaving an unlocked gun around is not a crime at all. Shouldn’t we be talking about that issue rather than attempting to discredit a teen-age boy who showed a lot more common sense than the owner of that gun?

I love that “what we all know” line. It’s a shorter version of “pay no attention to that fact behind the curtain.” The fact here being that the PSA made it seem acceptable, make that desirable for teenagers to commit various gun-related felonies. No wonder the ad’s been pulled. The same should happen to Mike “The Gun Guy” Weisser’s praise of the polemic. Then again, we need the publicity.

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85 COMMENTS

  1. If they ever succeed with guns (not in my lifetime, one way or the other) they’ll move on to putting car keys and alchohol in safes I suppose,. no loving parent would ever trust their teenagers to leave those things alone, why they could get drunk and kill someone! Don’t forget medications, we need Medsafes! For the children! Maybe we should make it a law that all gas tanks must be drained whenever a vehicle is parked at home, just to be safe, “For the children” and nobody could steal your car and use it for evil purposes! Maybe we could elect Mickey Mouse president, and anybody that says no is a Racist! Er, Mouseist! Um, well, whatever, they’re just not liberal enough! Okay I need a nap now…..

    • In the Soviet Union, not only were guns illegal (in the hands of common citizens), but the communists recognized that the pen is mightier than the sword, so even into the ’80’s private possession of any type of duplicating machines was illegal and office typewriters were locked in a secure room every night. Give us time; we’ll get there too.

      • Yep.

        Until ‘Glasnost’ Xerox machines had keylocks with only ‘responsible’ people (IE, ‘Party’ members) issued keys.

        • that makes me feel better every time i use the copy machine at work. Me and the ole Rico have our differences in opinion, but we both believe in the freedom of the press. (even the mentally deficient ones with big mouths)

        • Xerox machines were virtually non-existent in the USSR in the first place. The Party had typographies to cover all its needs, and most everyone else would make do with carbon paper.

    • The true lunacy about gun grabbers obsessing about accidental deaths of children (14 Y/O and younger) by unsecured guns is that it is at the bottom of the list by a good margin of all the ways a child dies in a year. Below drinking chemicals from under the sink and drowning in bath tubs, buckets and pools.

      But that is the point. Statists use emotion, not facts to push their agenda, which isn’t about “the children”, it’s about control.

    • Don,

      You forgot matches and lighters — we need laws mandating that parents store matches and lighters in safes as well to prevent children from setting their houses on fire!

      Come to think of it, we need to keep Christmas lights and Christmas trees in safes as well because that combination starts house fires every year. Must must act on this immediately … it is for the children!

      /end_sarcasm

      • How about locking up these other deadly weapon: bats, sticks, large rocks, bricks, etc. We should also mandate handcuffs since most murders are committed with hands. 🙂

  2. lol you know that thing about “TTAG is probably giving them more eyeballs then they could ever get on their own?” Well, here’s the proof!

  3. Since his gun business failed (from what I’ve heard, largely due to his caustic personality), he is now trying to make a living dissing guns. Hypocritical much?

  4. Darn, the unlocked guns in my home are like that for a reason. Strangely enough, they have never done anything harmful. An odd thing I thought of while watching a news report of a gun “going off” in a teens hands the other day….why is it that with the tremendous number of loaded firearms in bedstands, holsters, drawers, all over some peoples homes, hidden under counters in businesses, etc….it seems the only time these firearms “go off” all by themselves is when someone has their mitts on them? I can’t shake the feeling that it isn’t the gun’s fault.
    Kind of like cars rarely start themselves and run over innocent pedestrians.
    I think “we all know” is more like “we are selling the idea”. The same lie repeated often enough…

    • Just pointing out the fact that you used the word truth and journalism in the same sentence. Tisk, tisk. You should know better……

      • I did type “about,” i.e. concerning – although “proximal to” sort of works as well; never did I assert or imply “within.”

        That said, this blog is journalism of a sort…

  7. I don’t think you need the publicity that bad. Having said that, let the huffpo’s mouthpiece spout off all he wants to about that ill-advised PSA, just like every town’s PSA with the woman calling the cops on her pfa ex….this has come to bit them in the ass. Even non gun enthusiasts are having a wtf moment after watching that add.

  8. So for him even though everyone presumably in the household is sane, it is ok for your kid to commit 5+ felonies?
    Am I missing how stupid he sounds here or are we just becoming numb to the lunacy of the antis?

    • No, you’re not missing it. I’ve talked to quite a few people about that, and even the hard-core antis I’ve shown that video to have (after verifying it’s not actually satire) had a strong negative reaction to the video. Frankly, I’m glad they put that up. It’s a perfect counterpoint to whenever these ass closes claim to just want “reasonable restrictions”. “Yeah, we only want reasonable restrictions, but are so frothing-at-the-mouth against guns that we will encourage children to bring guns to school (committing multiple felonies) just to get them out of their homes, and present that as the most reasonable idea anyone has ever had.” Very few people will believe that line of reasoning, and it can be useful to show the fence-sitters that “reasonable restrictions” are a myth.

      • I think we are ignoring the obvious intent of the response. Mike the verifiable idiot was referencing the selective enforcement he envisions (probably correctly), in that such a case would in actuality have all the felonies ignored or dismissed because of the teen’s “good intentions”. Don’t we see that repeatedly, like the dimbulb waving around a 30-rd mag on TV recently after it was declared a felony to possess one, and sure enough, nothing happened to him, the law is destined for selective enforcement, to be used against any foes of those who are in power.

  9. This man is proof that just because we have a freedom to express our opinion it doesn’t mean it is wise to do so. Especially when said opinion is ignorant.

    • Ignorant speech just like hate speech is the kind of speech that needs to be most protected, since a person being offended is not a justification to restrict a protected right. The best way to combat the two is by engaging in a preliminary conversation and seeing if there is any basis to what is being said or if it is tripe. A non-ignorant person processes information(logic) before making a conclusive decision(Formed opinion), and the ignorant can only be persuaded to change their biases with facts and understanding or ultimately force. One could also go the way of the liberal, which is the same way of the dodo bird and think with self-interested emotion and hate others for simply existing and believing in individual liberty and minimal federal intrusion. If they are just hateful knuckle-draggers speak up and tell them as such, or be a liberal and try to have the government censor those mean bullies, and then be thankful for the freedom to associate.

  10. So. Let me get this straight. Mike Weisser has publicly confessed his part in a scheme, which crosses state and national boundaries, to incite minors to commit multiple felonies? That about size this up? If so that falls under RICO. Why has Mikee not yet been Garnered? He lives in New York? New York cops merrily kill people over tobacco. why is this f*ck allowed to live? Because he is white? Or because he is a Democrat?

    • Tokyo Rose, a name most commonly linked to Iva Toguri, was an American of Japanese decent stranded in Japan when the war broke out and forced to provide propaganda for the Imperial government. She was pardoned in the 1970s for having been wrongly convicted of treason. I believe linking Weisser with Ms. Toguri is unfair.

      He is much more a Jane Fonda. Willful and determined to lend not just his voice to to actively betray those he might have been thought a of as a compatriot.

      • I will raise the ante and say he is more like David Brock, who heard a few senators tell some gay jokes and decided it meant republicans wanted him dead. He then did all he could to undermine his former movement (like by writing for Huffpo) and eventually founded a “think tank,” as this clown obviously is angling for.

      • she eventually wound up working in a store at broadway and argyle where we used to buy snow pea pods and tomoe ame.

  12. And what about those of us without kids to “keep guns away from”?

    Anyway, this guy is a total tool. Kids steal drugs WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more than they steal guns from their parents.

  13. I realize that no logic nor native intelligence nor common experience has anything whatsoever to do with Mike the anti-Gun Guy’s ravings, but the vid doesn’t even show any of the supposed dangers of having a gun in the house–not a graphic with statistics on accidents and homicides, not a voice-over describing any such occurrences, not nothin’. All it says it the [panty-wetting] kid doesn’t “feel safe”. This ad is so over-the-top that our friend Ladd Everitt opined that the producer was actually pro-gun and put out the “PSA” specifically to make gun-controllers look like idiots. Didn’t Mike the so-called gun guy get THAT memo??

  14. I have noticed even on huff post, that more and more pro gun folks are calling these a$$hats out, providing facts, logic, common sense, and if nothing else, “we” need to take control of the tempo, and direct the narrative in a way the anti’s cannot debate. They whine from emotion, we call Bullsh&&. At every post, at every op-ed, at every chance confront these hopolophobes and give the one finger salute in reply on their blogs, articles, etc.
    Keep Calm and remind them that they are nothing but statist, elitist, hypocritical sheep. They won’t stop until sadly, we bring tar and feathering back, sigh, but until than, call them out for their ridiculousness.

  15. Wow, so those of us who have successfully raised children “with unsafe, loaded weapons” in our home are what? I guess it is called parenting….you teach your children about the weapons which helps prevent accidents. Also, as a parent, I really don’t want to leave my teenage daughter home alone without access to a weapon! She knows how to “lock and load”!!

  16. From the article (bold mine):

    “From viewer reactions, you would think that the NRA had posted a video telling gun owners to turn in all their guns. I have never seen such vitriol, such anger and such cheap and snarky comments directed at any statement about gun ownership….“

    Hummm… he must have skipped over the VPC, MDA, CSGV et al. Twitter feeds.

  17. A firearm in the home makes you less safe? Wow, I’m glad nobody ever told any of my firearms that. Other than the summer I spent in Oregon with my liberal aunt as a child, I can’t think of a time when I’ve spent more than a day or two in a home that didn’t have a firearm and none of them have EVER tried to kill me.

    When I was a child, my father had firearms mostly for hunting, but ran a FFL buisness out of the home and playing with an SKS wasn’t something my parents looked twice at. Growing up, I moved out and found that the city I called home wasn’t quite as safe as I once thought so I purchased a shotgun, then when I was old enough, I added a couple of pistols to the mix. Enlisting in the military at 23 I found myself literally surrounded by guns of all sizes and gained a new respect for military style firearms.

    Now, in my 30’s I have a handgun beside my bed, a shotgun under that bed, and a safe full of hunting and defensive rifles and shotguns. Not once have any of those firearms tried to kill me.

    In fact, no legally owned firearm has EVER tried to kill me. The only times I’ve ever feared a firearm were deployments and two attempted muggings by felons who were already “barred” from owning the very guns they pointed at me.

    Keeping a gun in the house is not a danger. Keeping a criminal in the home is.

  18. I’m sure @queensincic is loving all the free PR for her (admittedly low-quality) video production business.

    The interesting thing about all this yapping is that the authors of such nonsense never respond to pointed inquiries about their writings. I regularly call out and attempt to engage these rubes on their own turf, and no one ever bites. Even their lapdogs are quiet. They drop their nonsense and run away.

    • I’m not so sure she’s loving it–at any rate, her partners in production are not, they are running away from it as fast as they can.

      • You might be right. Her IG hasn’t been updated in weeks and her other social profiles are pretty mum as well. It’s no fun when they stay quiet, or delete my comment. I don’t attack the person and I rarely swear.

    • I don’t think very many of the antis are trying to push this “PSA” very much–it’s too stupid even for most of them. I’m kind of wondering if Mikey hasn’t just gone full-on troll with this one.

  22. Tool time…I saw this Shite on yahoo so I wouldn’t worry about giving it publicity. Also it shows up right under TTAG on google…

  23. Interesting how this HuffandPuffPo nozzle is so ready to point out how criminals who shoot up schoolchildren DON’T CARE ABOUT THE LAWS THEY’RE BREAKING. Let me see if I can come up with an expression to show my reaction to that idea…

    DUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

    To see a visual depiction of this reaction, go here: http://youtu.be/8aoL08SloPA

    Yeah, HuffPoser, we know that criminals don’t care about the laws they break. We’ve been telling YOU that for decades, when you keep pushing for more and more LAWS to supposedly “control” these criminals! We keep saying that banning guns in schools, in bars, in movie theaters, in fast food restaurants — none of these bans mean ANYTHING to a criminal who’s already willing to commit multiple felonies to steal a gun and who is willing to commit murder and mayhem! We’ve been telling YOU that for forever, but suddenly, when we point out the laws an idiotic PSA advocates children break, YOU have to tell us that a guy who shoots up a school…here it comes!…doesn’t CARE about those laws!

    Mmmmmmm…the irony is simply delicious.

    Once again…http://youtu.be/8aoL08SloPA

  24. Interesting how this HuffandPuffPo nozzle is so ready to point out how criminals who shoot up schoolchildren DON’T CARE ABOUT THE LAWS THEY’RE BREAKING. Let me see if I can come up with an expression to show my reaction to that idea…

    DUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

    To see a visual depiction of this reaction, go here: http://youtu.be/rS401CI7TZg

    Yeah, HuffPoser, we know that criminals don’t care about the laws they break. We’ve been telling YOU that for decades, when you keep pushing for more and more LAWS to supposedly “control” these criminals! We keep saying that banning guns in schools, in bars, in movie theaters, in fast food restaurants — none of these bans mean ANYTHING to a criminal who’s already willing to commit multiple felonies to steal a gun and who is willing to commit murder and mayhem! We’ve been telling YOU that for forever, but suddenly, when we point out the laws an idiotic PSA advocates children break, YOU have to tell us that a guy who shoots up a school…here it comes!…doesn’t CARE about those laws!

    Mmmmmmm…the irony is simply delicious.

    Once again… http://youtu.be/rS401CI7TZg

    • It was pulled, re-uploaded by several other folks as an illustration of gun-control lunacy, then re-posted by the original nutcase with comments disabled and a new “description”.

    • In a secure, detached structure at the rear of your property…and when an intruder breaks into your home, you can tell him to politely wait while you arm yourself.

  27. His name is not Weisser. It’s Weasel. Mike Weasel. He is among the most despised lowlifes of all time by POTG in MA. Maybe the most despised. And he has more chins than brains.

  28. So, are we to deduce, that he, a gun store owner, does not keep firearms in his home to protect his family from intruders?
    Yeah..right.

  30. Friends, do not follow links to these kinds of articles. They are click bait, they are designed to be provocative, designed to attract a lot of attention from pro-gun types, drive traffic to the site and make sure that Huffpo stays afloat. I, for one, am making a resolution for 2015 not to follow links, read or comment on any of that crap. If we ignore Mike and Huffpo, don’t visit those pages, don’t comment, there is a decent chance that website will crash and burn. Plus think of our blood pressure. That man is a fool. Plain and simple. There is nothing he can say that could be of any value to the POTG.

  31. I bet you he’d be singing a different tune if one of his kids stole one of his firearms. Not only would he be the parent of an unwitting felon because of said video, but he could face charges (I’m assuming he’s from Massachusetts) for some kind of negligence himself.

    Feel free to correct me on this, but I operate under the understanding that failure to report a stolen firearm is a crime in Massachusetts. If not, I’m sure there’s a myriad of other crimes he could be charged with because his kid took em. In this day and age, it wouldn’t surprise me if Mass has such laws on the books.

  32. I commented, politely, about this on his own wordpress blog page. I listed the crimes depicted and pointed out that “gun free zones” around schools are futile, if such a well-meaning child would ignore such a rule.

    He deleted it.

    Sigh.

  34. Maybe these idiots should start having kids steal and turn in their parents prescription drugs so the “teacher” can dispose of them properly. This propaganda these gun ban cultists are pushing sounds a lot like a certain kind of you from the 1930s and 40s.

  35. From the article….

    “…The only problem with this bromide [DGU’s] is that 95 percent of the decline took place between 1994-2003, while the number of guns bought by civilians began to show major increases after 2004.”

    So the crime rate went down THEN people started buying firearms. Did the crime rate go back up?

    No?

    Then maybe the firearms aren’t the problem.

  36. Went to HUFFPO and read a few of this clown’s articles. Claims to be a POTG, but yet identifies a Ruger mini-14 as a black rifle and claims to own a “Glock 9”. This clown also claims to be in the gun business for over 30 years, yet his nomenclature is incorrect. A perfect stooge for the antis with his claim since they really don’t know any better.

    • If you’re referring to my above post sorry if I don’t subscribe to the groupthink hive mentality that you’re more comfortable with.

      • Could be referring to Mike. Gushing over a vid that even 99% of the usual “anti” suspects are running from? Does indeed look like simple trolling.

      • If I want to reply to your post, I’ll hit the little red “Reply” link underneath it. If the thread has gotten too deep and the “Reply” link is unavailable, I’ll reply to the same one you replied to and address you as @Pg2.

        Does that make sense?

  39. I suspect that this fellow simply thinks he has found a clever way to promote himself and sell books. He seems like a garden variety jackhole scammer to me.

  40. Michael Weisser “gun guy”… hilarious.

    I’ve had some debates with him (or someone that goes by his name):
    http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2014/12/guns-health

    Michael Weisser BillofRights• 20 days ago
    …Guns in the home raise the risk of both homicides and suicides in those homes far beyond the degree that guns have ever been used protectively….

    Michael Weisser Chad • 20 days ago
    Nobody would disagree with what you say except for one point. Our violence rate is about the same as other Western countries but our homicide rate is much higher because it’s so easy to get your hands on a gun.

    Michael Weisser Patrick Curley • 20 days ago
    They don’t have to ask about pools because since 2003 all 50 states require that any home with children and an in-ground pool must have a fence around the pool. If we had similar laws for locking up guns there would less mortality and morbidity with children and guns.

    Here was my response:
    John Smith Michael Weisser • 20 days ago
    If guns raise the risk of homicide and suicide in the home, then the ownership of spoons raise the risk someone will get fat. Guns don’t make peoples decisions. They are bits of metal, wood, plastic, and springs. If your kid is fat, you don’t talk to him about the ownership of spoons right? I think you should focus on the root of the problem here Mike.

    Mike is not a supporter of “individual rights.” He is a supporter of statistics and the governmental progressive machine and control thereof. His solution is more laws. Gun laws.

    • Michael Weisser Patrick Curley • 20 days ago
      They don’t have to ask about pools because since 2003 all 50 states require that any home with children and an in-ground pool must have a fence around the pool. If we had similar laws for locking up guns there would less mortality and morbidity with children and guns.

      And yet even with fencing laws (not in all 50 states and no federal law), pool drownings are still a leading cause of death of young children. I swear, for a “gun guy” who’s so obvious pro-gun control, he sure comes up with some stupid examples.

      • Agreed. The pool fence law isn’t even a law. It’s a lie. There is a law for public swimming pools – not for private homes. I don’t know any state that requires a fence around a pool on private property.

        • I don’t think it is a State Law in Florida but many of the Counties have ordinances that require fences and gate-locks. My county requires I have a minimum four foot fence on the property (or three foot fence around the immediate pool area) with self-closing gates and ‘adult’ latches.

          I don’t like that I am required to do all that, but I do like the discount I get on my homeowners insurance for having all that.

          I would have the fence anyway, I just don’t like being required to have the fence.

  41. ever try to be the voice of reason on a Huffpo article? If you get one through they block you specifically. And in the case with this article they block everyone from commenting.

  42. How do you think that Jaylen Fryberg got his hands on the gun he used to kill four students at Marysville High School on October 24? And it really didn’t matter how many other crimes Fryberg committed that day in order to bring the gun into the school because after shooting the four other kids, he then used the gun to kill himself.

    Oh you mean the EXECUTION the kid planned for his cousins at a location guaranteed to be free of armed opposition? If it doesn’t matter how many laws he broke, why force MORE laws? Obviously criminals intent on committing harm could care less about the law.

  43. “Know what crime wasn’t depicted in the video? The crime that would have occurred if that same kid had taken his mother’s gun to school, walked into a classroom and opened fire at other students and adults”

    “isn’t it great he didn’t break that one last law, so great in fact we are not going to press charges for the at least 4 other crimes” said no officer ever.

  44. I actually enjoy being a feature story on TTAG every fourth or fifth day, even though I suspect that it’s the slow time in the news industry, even news about guns. But I would like to correct one issue that Robert keeps bringing up, namely, the assertion that he “owns” the phrase, “the truth about guns.” What he owns, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are the words ‘The Truth About Guns’ but only if they are used as the title of a website or a blog. He has no ownership of those words or that phrase if they are used in context of text, commentary, etc. No ownership whatsoever.

    • Ah, is Mikee gonna cry again?!? It is amazing, the number of things you are so blatantly ignorant about. Almost as amazing as your inability to not show the world your ignorance. Now toddle on back to HufPo and tell them how you showed us what for.

    • Mike, thank you for checking in here. Nice of you to be civil. You can expect the same from me. Why did you delete my comment from your wordpress blog? I was neither rude nor disrespectful.

  45. Now every one is just taking this whole thing just over the top and to extremes. The real solution to this entire process is to ban semen and eggs from The liberal public you know the idea. Stop the ability to create the children of liberals and it would be a problem solved in 1 generation. By the second generation we would have a good strong country again.

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