Joe Nocera (courtesy writing.upenn.edu)

An audience member corralled me after I spoke at the Second Amendment Foundation’s Florida chin wag. “Why are you so angry?” she asked. Why wouldn’t I be? As the son of a Holocaust survivor whose people were disarmed and slaughtered, I’ve got two words for the gun grabbers: never again. OK, so the New York Times’ Joe Nocera is posting and re-posting and re-posting a feature called This Day in Gun Violence . . .

We have an unusually long list of violent incidents in which guns were involved this weekend. It couldn’t be because Sunday was St. Patrick’s Day, could it? Here is our weekend report.

This is the kind of left-leaning mainstream media anti-gun agitprop that gets my proverbial goat. Snarkily, nay condescendingly waving the bloody shirt in the pursuit of civilian disarmament without any context or counterpoint.

Don’t get me wrong. If the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, The Mayors Against Illegal Guns or some other gun control group published this list o’ links on a daily basis, fair enough. That’s the business they’re in. But the New York Times? It’s an e’ffing disgrace.

Members of TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia are sure to remind me that the Times was lost to liberal bias years ago. These days, the Times is no more “the newspaper of record” than The Onion. Probably less.

The difference with this example is that I’ve spoken to Joe Nocera. We discussed his story about passengers caught with guns at airports. He was an entirely rational antagonist, to the point where he appreciated the logic of allowing concealed carry permit holders to carry their firearms on planes.

We talked about the need to balance reporting on “gun crime” with stories of defensive gun use. Which would the perfect addition to this feature, by the way. As if.

Just so you know, no matter what they say to gun rights advocates, gun control shills like Nocera know exactly what they’re doing. And just so you know, Joe, we know exactly what you’re doing too.

Nocera’s buds think he’s on the side of the angels for facing down “the gun lobby.” Maybe Joe thinks this is “objective journalism.” Yeah, well, as another Zimmerman reminded us, you gotta serve somebody. I wonder if Joe knows who’s really calling the tune.

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37 COMMENTS

  1. > We have an unusually long list of violent incidents in which
    > guns were involved this weekend. It couldn’t be because
    > Sunday was St. Patrick’s Day, could it? Here is our weekend report.

    Imagine the screams of self-righteous outrage that would erupt from the Donkeyrats if a newspaper published this:

    We have an unusually long list of violent incidents in which African-Americans were involved this weekend. It couldn’t be because Sunday was St. Patrick’s Day, could it? Here is our weekend report.

    Saying that blacks commit violent crime (including murder) at a higher per-capita rate than the general population — regardless of how true it is — makes one a bigot and racist.

    But it’s perfectly acceptable among the politically-correct Left to smear gun-owners as a group.

  2. Maybe he will remember the conversation you had with him. Contact him and call him on his BS.

  3. Are you that naive? The NYT is no more a legitimate source of news than Pravda or Izvestia were during the Soviet era. The Times is just an arm of the Democratic National Committee. I think Soviet journalists had more integrity than the employees of the NYT. They wrote under compulsion. They stopped believing what they wrote long before the Wall came down.

  4. Too bad their archives don’t have a “This Day in Gun Violence” from July 13, 1863. That was the day the New York Times held back a rioting mob with a set of Gatling guns. While other buildings were looted and razed, the Times’s building and staff came out unscathed.

    Do you think that the editorial staff would have supported a 10-round magazine limit on that particular day?

    • New York Draft Riots

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Draft_Riots

      The Bull’s Head hotel on 44th Street, which refused to provide alcohol to the mob, was burned. The mayor’s residence on Fifth Avenue, the Eighth and Fifth District police stations, and other buildings were attacked and set on fire. Other targets included the office of the New York Times. The mob was turned back at the Times office by staff manning Gatling guns, including Times founder Henry Jarvis Raymond. Fire engine companies responded, but some of the firefighters were sympathetic to the rioters, since they too had been drafted on Saturday. Later in the afternoon, authorities shot and killed a man as a crowd attacked the Armory at Second Avenue and 21st Street. The mob broke all the windows with paving stones ripped from the street.

      Robert M. Brown, who occasionally comments here, observed that the weapons used by the New York Times were “more advanced than anything the Federal Army had at the time“.

      And while not gun-related, Dave Hardy at “Arms And The Law” recently posted that

      the present site of the NY Times headquarters building was obtained by having State agency condemn the land, evicting a mass of small businesses, and having the agency give the Times a 99 year lease for a fraction of its value.

      • thanks, i posted a comment.

        i was thinking if i have time i may post one like this a day “your civil rights have been brought to you courtesy of the 2nd Amendment” with a “day in gun violence history”

      • > “your civil rights have been brought to you
        > courtesy of the 2nd Amendment”

        Please cite instances of gun-owners using their 2nd Amendment rights to protect the civil rights of others.

        I keep hearing this claim over and over, but have yet to see any evidence this is true.

        For example, the War On Some Drugs has been a civil liberties disaster, but I don’t see gun-owners coming to the aid of the Police State’s victims.

        • really? are you that ignorant of the 60s?

          as as far as gun owners coming to the aid of the police state’s victims, here in maryland you cannot get a concealed carry permit unless you have a good and substantial reason, and being a witness willing to stand up against a gang aint a good enough reason (even though witness intimidation and murder are common – they are even so arrogant as to make a youtube video of threats cause the police cant get them). you can’t even carry a taser in balmore city. I would strongly support a neighborhood watch group that armed themselves and stood up to these thugs and took back their neighborhood.

  6. There is nothing unconstitutional about a column listing selected gun crimes. Exploding at the column’s continued existence is, in my view, downright counterproductive. It does, however, happen to be the case that gun ownership is also constitutionally protected. So, one can have a discussion about the constitutionally acceptable measures one can take to reduce crime. I am not sure anyone at the New York Times is prepared to have a serious and thoughtful discussion on this topic, short of declaring that any gun control scheme they can think of is automatically constitutional.

    And in any case, it’s not clear that everyone in the country is reading that column:
    http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/18/cnn-poll-is-support-for-gun-control-dipping/

  7. Leave the poor guy alone. As people age and feel the heavy hand of mortality, they generally begin to loose their intellectual creativity and independence and become more dependent on, and assimilated within, their peer groups. If he actually was honest and balanced about gun-rights issues, he would be a lonely, ostracized member of the NYT staff and the NY “intelligentsia.”

    Of course, if he actually was honest and balanced about anything [other than sports], he would also be unique on the NYT staff.

  8. This day in NYT Stupidity!!
    Today Joe Nocera uttered another stupid anti gun saying, phrase or editorial piece. At the wish of his Masters he spoke out of his ass, as usual, instead of his mouth and brain.
    Nothing has changed, all is well, rest peacefully Citizens. The NYT is here to watch over you!! Nighty Night!

  9. So proud to be Irish. Only a couple generations ago and we weren’t even considered “white”, now you can mock us with impunity.

  10. I’m thinking that with the wide public reach that the NYT has, we could use a few more well-seasoned calm debaters of a liberal bent to patrol the NYT comments section. Not to go on an ideological assault (counterproductive), but simply to counter the snide pot-shots that they keep taking at us. Keep patrolling and don’t let them get the last word – there isn’t any reason why us gun-supporting liberals should have to give up our turf.

    • Why should only those of “liberal bent” comment in NYT? It’s not like all conservatives are raving lunatics who can’t reason calmly.

      • Sure, if you can stomach it. I know I would be miserable having to keep an eye on yahoo news all day every day, because the comment section just make s me lose hope in mankind.

  11. “The difference with this example is that I’ve spoken to Joe Nocera. We discussed his story about passengers caught with guns at airports. He was an entirely rational antagonist, to the point where he appreciated the logic of allowing concealed carry permit holders on planes.”

    Either that, or he was thinking: “Oh god, I’ve got to get away from this brain-washed, gun-toting monster! Just purse your mouth thoughtfully and nod to whatever he says…”

  12. The pose he presents in that picture will be the extent of his defense when people break into his house to rob him of all his money and dignity. Hopefully for his sake he doesn’t have a wife. They will most likely have their way with her while they are at it. Perhaps she can take the liberal party line advise and just try to enjoy it.

  13. What do you expect from a Providence-born old-left Democrat with delusions of adequacy and a history of calling the Tea Party a bunch of terrorists who “have waged jihad on the American people” and demanded that they “put aside their suicide vests.”

    The guy’s a total pr!ck. I guess that he has to be since he can’t write worth a damn.

  14. I agree with Robert Farago.

    I’ve read Joe Nocera’s reporting for years and have been almost always been impressed with his toughness, insight, and diligence in analyzing most matters that he covers.

    However,when a guy with his estimable chops continues to publish his “This Day in Gun Violence” (which he admits is sourced solely from results of putting inputting “shooting” in a Google News search each day – no surprise DGU’s don’t show up utilizing that lame reporting psuedo-methodology), it’s clear his intent is to mislead and and disturb and is not to designed to catalyze anything approaching a fair or constructive discussion on reducing gun violence.

    Just why Nocera decided to piss away his credibility on this issue at this time remains a bit of a mystery to me.

  15. Mr. Robert Farago what happened to this site? No more spell check? Constant login to make comments? Can we get the spell check function back or is it just me? And if it is me can you send me the illistrated instructions to correct? PLEASE 🙂

  16. Seems like if you are in bed before 10:30 pm the chances are very good that you won’t come down with a case of acute lead poisoning.

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