It would be nice to live in a world where you could trust the information imparted by the talking head news anchors you see on TV. Where well informed Cronkite-esque clones provide verified facts from reporters who had ferreted out the truth. But that’s not the world we live in . . .
Instead we get uninformed “personalities” who spout their personal beliefs without any particular knowledge of a subject or basis in fact. Stephanie Ruhle (above), anchor on MSNBC Live, is one such a person.
According to Mediaite, the following is an actual statement made by Ms. Rule on live television:
Why do you need any assault rifles? An assault rifle is different than a gun. A hunting enthusiast and one who needs an assault rifle, those are two different things.
Where to begin?
According to Wikipedia an “assault rifle” is a select fire (meaning “machine gun”) weapon that uses an intermediate cartridge and has a detachable magazine. Thanks to the National Firearms Act and the Firearm Owners Protection Act actual “assault rifles” are so rare and so tightly regulated in the United States as to be nonexistent.
Practically speaking, no one outside police and military units own any “assault rifles.” So I guess she’s right — no one “needs” an “assault rifle” because no one actually owns one.
In this case I believe she is referring to the AR-15 rifle as the object that’s “different than a gun” — a rifle that’s not a select fire weapon and therefore doesn’t meet the definition of an “assault rifle” But since this is a “journalist” and not someone who actually does research or respects the actual definition of words we’ll give her a one time handicap and move on.
Firearms such as the AR-15 rifle belong to a group of firearms referred to by the industry as Modern Sporting Rifles or MSRs. Or, if you’re in California or have a “D” at the end of your chyron, they’re also referred to as “assault weapons.”
No matter what you call them, these weapons are what we call a “subset” of the universe of firearms. As the word “rifle” in the pejorative Stephanie chose betrays, these so-called “assault rifles” are in fact rifles. A rifle is a firearm. Firearms are also known as guns. Even actual “assault rifles” like the military M16 are still considered a subset of guns.
The statement that “an assault rifle is different than a gun” is factually inaccurate and misleading. False. A lie, if you will. Fake news, some might say. But Ms. Ruhle’s next sentence reveals what she’s really getting at.
“A hunting enthusiast and one who needs an assault rifle, those are two different things.”
It’s the standard “No True Scotsman” argument implying that “real hunters” use old fashioned bolt action rifles. And nothing else. Because “assault weapons” are useless except for gunning down innocent people in mass shootings.
The problem with that claim: it’s also factually inaccurate.
Hunters have always been on the cutting edge of firearms technology. In fact, they’ve often the driving force behind the development of new cartridges and technologies later adopted by the military.
In the case of the AR-15, hunters across the United States use them in droves. Not because it’s a mass murdering machine. Because it’s a versatile, accurate weapon that can easily be reconfigured without costly trips to the gunsmith.
Your grandpappy’s Remington 700 is probably more palatable to the anti-gun crowd due to its relatively unassuming looks. But swapping barrels or changing out components is a time consuming process that requires skill. With the AR-15, that same operation can be done with little more than a hammer in a couple minutes. Not to mention the added comfort of being able to adjust the rifle to fit every shooter with the push of a couple buttons, something that’s damn near impossible on a traditional bolt action rifle.
But don’t take my word for it — the usefulness of the AR-15 platform as a hunting rifle is so well known that even TIME Magazine ran a story about it.
Those who claim that an AR-15 isn’t a “hunting rifle” are simply revealing their ignorance. They’ve never been hunting, likely don’t know any hunters and haven’t even bothered to take the time to do a cursory Google search on the topic.
And those who claim that “an assault rifle is different than a gun” are either hilariously uninformed or carefully exploiting the situation and their position to push a particular narrative on their audience. An audience that’s trusting them to impart reliable information.
I knew I’d seen that Texas killer before…
https://youtu.be/XGvuyT32Uwc
What kind of a monster would willingly expose someone to a Uwe Bowl film??
The first Rampage wasn’t entirely unwatchable. Parts 2 & 3 were horrible steaming messes.
I think, it was “a day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times… all things are as they were then, and you were there.” that was the better of his sign offs.
This story just gives more credence to my theory of the new “waitress >> porn star >> newscaster career path”. 😉
No doubt she’s slept her way to an anchor desk.
That was uncalled for. There’s no need to insult her virtue when it’s so easy to insult her intelligence.
Besides, it’s common knowledge that if you’re attractive and can read, you have a career waiting for you in either broadcast news or pharmaceutical sales. No casting couch required.
Actually the “casting couch” exists as a way some women can enhance their chances of getting the position, and make up for things like being stupid.
I think she worked in finance for Meryll Lynch and Credit Suisse for about a decade, with great success, before moving into T.V. She wasn’t some broke, desperate, or naive kid when she got in.
You skipped “stripper”.
Gotta learn to dance on the pole before you get paid to ride it to a high paying gig.
I’ll show myself to the corner now.
You got the career-path chronology backwards.
—> Newscaster and/or reporter, along with customer service, suggested by a H.S. guidance counselor because sandwich-maker, janitor, and retail were obviously well outside their wheelhouses. Acting & performing arts are not mentioned, for they require at least a veneer of personality. And because customer service requires actual work and provides none of the attention they crave, a community college will dutifully hand over a certificate for showing up.
—> With their $15k North Southwestern _____ State College Attagirl Degrees, they rapidly find out that becoming a highly-paid anchorwoman or commentator requires a bit more than being a Kelly™ clone or YouTube replygirl, and having over 9000 followers.
Most are let go for sleeping with the married morning-traffic guy; video surfacing of them being trained while railing footballs with half the Western Tech Florida football team, or they simply have the on-air presence of an oscillating desk fan. Others get knocked up & stations know their thirsty viewers find unseeded newswomen much more informative.
—> Having proven they’ve enough physical traits to get them on local TV, many chain-eateries & bars actively hire them as waitresses (actually hostesses or “hospitality associates”. Usually during this time, college debt piles up, along with vehicle & cosmetic surgery payments, human crotchburster upkeep, and staying on trend with the latest NoCIA PockeTrack X9 Intellifone.
—> ???
—> Escorting, & off into porn.
—> Profit!
What’s wrong with you?
Stephanie Ruhle?! She told me her name was Bunny Hugs!
“Where well informed Cronkite-esque clones provide verified facts from reporters who had ferreted out the truth.”
Except Cronkite was a dyed-in-the-wool pro-soviet leftist who, in addition to pushing his anti-American agenda, wrote the book on what the media does today. Why does everyone idolize people like him?
Just another info babe ready copy written by someone else. Hard news and true journalism has been dead in this country for over 40 years. People are just now beginning to see and understand that the main stream media(sic) is just a mouth piece for the liberal/progressive wing of the democrat party. Much as De Sturmer was for the Nazi party.
The 2nd amendment is not about shooting deer or criminals.
Tell that to Bambi’s mom. She sure could have used a little RKBA.
I’m sure Bambi’s mom was delicious.
As I recall from the story, and I have to admit that it’s been a long time since I subjected myself to it, Bambi’s father was aware of “the right to keep and bear arms,” and carried his every day, even utilizing them to protect his family.
Well Considering The Source I’m Not Surprised At All – Straight Dumb-Asses They Are!!!
/Firearms such as the AR-15 rifle belong to a group of firearms referred to by the industry as modern sporting rifles or MSRs. Or, if you’re in California or have a “D” at the end of your chyron, they’re also referred to as “assault rifles.”/
Um, “assault weapons” not “assault rifles”. Come on, you know this!
If the author is going to criticize another journalist for using incorrect terminology, one would hope that he would use the correct ones. Is this amateur hour, or what?
“Assault weapon” = statutorily defined semi-automatic firearm with certain features, (which was cooked up by Josh Sugarmann of the Violence Policy Center for the objective of securing incremental bans on firearms in a path towards a complete ban) most commonly with a detachable magazine.
“Assault rifle” = designated by the military for selective fire rifles of an intermediate power cartridge, with a detachable magazine
“It’s called an assault weapon, but it’s simply a semi-automatic hunting rifle in costume with a different stock. The functionality of the weapon is exactly the same. . . . I have a problem with banning a weapon because of its appearance.”
Sen. Angus King (I- ME)
“… I have a problem with banning a weapon because of…the Second Amendment.”
There ya go, fixed it for him. Nice initial effort, though.
When I’m interacting with people who use the terms assault weapon or (incorrectly, usually) assault rifle I’ve begun to ask them to define the term for me so I know what we’re talking about.
Typical responses and my reaction:
Them: “A machine gun”
Me: “Those are heavily regulated and only owned by people who have been carefully vetted by the federal government and, that is not what was used in this crime.”
Them: “A military style rifle”
Me: “Style, I suppose, I own one (or more) of those. Do you want to learn to shoot it?”
Them: “A gun with a (pick one or more: pistol grip, barrel shroud, semi-automatic, high powered, removable magazine, flash hider, etc. etc.)”
Me: “Oh, I own one (or more) of those. Do you want to learn to shoot it?”
For “military style” rifles, I would show them pictures of several from a Brown Bess musket to an AR with trapdoor and 1903 Springfields and a Garand in between. I’d also show them pictures of Ruger 10/22s and Mini-14s in stock form and functionally identical ones tricked out with tacticool accessories.
I do like to pull out a 30-06, .38 special, a .45 acp and a .223 remington and ask them to guess which ones are “military” rounds.
Let us not forget the “shoulder thing that goes up”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ospNRk2uM3U
This is a valiant attempt, but this is likely so far over the “reporter’s” head she’d need radar to track it.
Of course, she probably has no idea how that works either, so…
“MSNBC Anchor: “An Assault Rifle Is Different Than A Gun””
How typical of a liberal…that’s like bill Clinton professing that “he did not have sex with that woman” after getting his knob polished numerous times…
Concerning the pic on top, of Stephanie Ruhle.
Anytime you see a woman of over 40 years old modeling or wearing clothing usually worn by teenage girls, it speaks volumes to their (lack of) mindset…
Stephanie Ruhle… she’s no Contessa Brewer.
The mainstream media has always been dishonest. From the “yellow journalism” of the late 1800s and early 1900s to today’s “fake news, journalism has shown its true (communist) roots.
From the lies about the Spanish-American war to the New York Times’ WalterDduranty hiding the truth about and denying the artificially engineered and forced communist “famine” in the Ukraine, to the lies about the 1968 Viet Nam communist Tet offensive (a military victory for the South Vietnamese and American troops) reported by Walter Cronkite as a military defeat, Cronkite and his ilk were successful in prolonging the Viet Nam war for years, giving “aid and comfort” to the enemy, who bragged about being supported by the U S media.
Look at NBCs doctoring of GMC truck gas tanks, rigging them to explode, and the deliberate mischaracterization of George Zimmerman’s conversation withe the 911 dispatcher, deleting a key phrase, as well as showing Trayvon Martin as a 12-year-old rather than his more recent “thug” facebook picture.
The media has become a “fifth column” of the government and is not to be trusted.
To our advantage, we now have the internet, which gives the ability for ordinary citizens to be real “journalists”, quite often getting and reporting the story TRUTHFULLY before the mainstream media.
In fact, there are calls by “mainstream media” to “license” journalists, in an attempt to keep these “citizen journalists” out…twenty years ago, any journalist suggesting such a scheme would have been thrown out, but nowadays…
That’s all right, Stephanie. We also recognize that MSNBC is different than news.
I can make a decent argument for “assault rifles” and “guns” being different things, but I don’t think anybody has ever hunted deer with the kind of “gun” you tow behind your truck. Okay, maybe the odd Russian aristocrat pre-1917, but we’re not talking about them.
Only due to lack of supply and people getting pissy about hunting deer with artillery strikes.
Correct me if I’m wrong, technically isn’t any barrel shorter then 20 inches a carbine? So an AR 15 with a 16 inch barrel should be referred as an “assault carbine” if the media wants to get their wrongness at least a little righter.
Carbine is a very flexible term. Technically, any variant of a shoulder fired rifle with a shorter length than the general issue is a carbine. The interesting part is that now that the DoD has moved almost entirely over to the m4 platform, that would make it the standard “rifle” and the Mk18CQRB the “carbine”.
“MSNBC Anchor:”
THAT tells me all I need to know.
If you can show me in the 2nd Amendment where it talks about hunting, then I have a bridge to sell you in Arizona.
I suppose they sell lots of bridges in Arizona, mostly to older folks. And who’s to say Ruhle doesn’t have some non-original parts?
When you’re uninitiated, ignorant, obtuse or just plain fucking stupid, you can say pretty much whatever you want and get away with it because it’s exhausting to keep knocking down the zombie hoard of incessant straw men.
I really hate to agree with someone so uninformed.. but in that one little phrase she is technically, kinda correct, albeit probably accidentally.
A ‘gun’ is a large caliber, long range cannon, usually for direct fire. Think howitzer. Variations include things like naval guns for OTH fire.
Calling your AR a gun is like calling your magazine a clip. Its a rifle, more generally a weapon.. a smoke pole, a boom stick.
WIKI indicates she grew up in New Jersey and now lives in Manhattan. SO she has probably never touched a gun. Looks like she had a lot of smarts in business, Educated in Italy, Guatemala and Kenya in international business. worked for a bunch of places in NYC , so never been out of the city. She NEEDS TO STAY ON A TOPIC SHE KNOWS SOMETHING ABOUT.
If you know anything about any topic you quickly learn just how uninformed non specialized journalists are.
My cousin’s wife is with the Washington Post. I asked her last year if gun murder had been going up or down the past generation, she literally said to me: “you don’t need to read much of the news to know it has been going up.”
It tells you a few things. Modern journalism is a pack circle jerk, emphasizes impression instead of fact, and when it comes to subjects where they already have a bias, can often literally invert the core objective metric. In fact US firearms murder is way way down.
She wouldn’t like the scary looking “assault rifle” I’ll have in Richloam WMA week after next.
Don’t forget that an AR 15 can be configured to look like a traditional hunting rifle
The Ares defense scr is an AR with an FAL style rat tail bolt carrier that angles down into the Monte Carlo no pistol grip stock
Takes standard magazines and has an optics rail
So the lines between hunting rifle and assault weapon are truly blurred
“actual “assault rifles” are so rare and so tightly regulated in the United States as to be nonexistent. Practically speaking, no one outside police and military units own any “assault rifles.” So I guess she’s right — no one “needs” an “assault rifle” because no one actually owns one”
If you are going to make fun of her math skills you might not want to follow-up with a statement that equates rare with zero.
That said, she is clearly wrong. As you point out by definition an “assault rifle” whether the actual kind or a “modern sporting rifle” is a type of gun.
It starts with a pistol grip. Everyone knows that a rifle with a pistol grip has a split personality and is dangerous
The problem is that all the gun grabbing legislation cares not for the technical definition of assault rifle. The term “Assault Rifle” is defined in law and in MA for example, it is any rifle that looks military and is semi-auto.
Using the term is their narrative. The longer we think they are stupid the sooner we will see new laws or new interpretations of definitions such as our MA AG did do take all ARs off the shelves.
The major problem is that we have allowed the anti-gunners to define the terms. An AR-15 style rifle operates no different than a Ruger Mini-14. Same cartridge–different looks…
Just because we were raised with Walter Cronkite , doesn’t make him a fair , knowledgeable and unbiased reporter of the world we grew up in . W. C. was as much a leftist progressive hack as anyone on MSMBC or CNN today , they are just a lot more relaxed in voicing their opinions than their forbearers because their numbers are so increased .
The original Assault rifle was , as I have pointed out many times here and other places , the rifled barrel guns i.e. Kentucky long rifles , first manufactured in Germany and introduced by German gunsmiths in Penn. America , before the American Revolutionary War .
This being so because King George III used the term in describing it’s usage to complain of the American sharpshooter who would shoot a British officer from distances well past the 200 yard scouting ranges , from cover , a tactic considered improper by the British . It was considered taboo for a common soldier to target and shoot someone thought to be their social better .
Had the founding leaders of America and the common patriot soldiers had an ‘ assault weapon ‘ at their disposal during the American revolutionary war , would they have used it ?
Of coarse they would , and did , as tactics would indicate it’s place . Being slow to load , it was not favorable on the open battle field and being expensive to manufacture and hard to come by , it was not widely seen , but it did play an important role in creating havoc and terror in the officer rank of the British military and a decisive role in Americas independence .
Our single goal , as believers in American citizens rights to KEEP and BEAR arms and our shared goal to maintain these God given , constitution enumerated , RIGHTS , must be in the education of the citizenry of this nation , to enforce the truth , that the 2nd Amendment was not penned to protect the rights of hunters , but to empower the entire citizenry to serve and protect with the most efficient , tactical and technical weapons at their disposal .
They put a switch on the side of a modern military rifle to select between full auto function and select fire for a reason , going full auto all the time is tactically imbecilic , outfitting all your infantry men with a Kentucky long rifle on the battlefield of Gettysburg would have been tactically imbecilic .
It appears to me , common sense and the ability to reason ones self through simple task or potential task is quietly disappearing in the mainstream of human existence all over the world , but particularly in good old America .
“Your grandpappy’s Remington 700 is probably more palatable to the anti-gun crowd.” Until that’s the only gun left that you’re allowed to own, then they’ll come after those. I’m old enough to remember when all they wanted to ban were those cheap “Saturday Night Specials.” They assured us they’d never come after our quality handguns, rifles and shotguns. How things have changed in just 40 years.
“This is my rifle, waves rifle above head and this is my gun looks down at groin area.”
Simple as D I’s and taxes.
First, before I start I will state that I am a gun owner, CCW permit holder and 2nd Amendment supporter.
However, I find you’re article on this subject extremely lacking. Was she wrong? absolutely.
Are you helping the cause by quoting Wikipedia as your factual source? Seriously? Further, you attack her as “only” having a BS from Lehigh when you only have a BS from PSU?? Seriously? Go check the rankings…
Responses to these incorrect media reports need to be factual and credible if you wish to convert people. If you are just trying to throw red meat on those who already support 2nd amendment rights then great go ahead and make fun of her education while quoting Wikipedia as fact.
Quite often, firearms owners are their own worst enemies. The duck hunters don’t like the AR-15 “black rifles” so they see no problem if attempts are made to ban them. The traditional rifle owners don’t like machine guns, so they have no problem with them being legislated out of existence. Some pistol owners see nothing wrong with certain long guns being outlawed just as some rifle owners would have no problem seeing pistols banned.
Friends, ALL firearms advocates must “hang together” and realize that an assault on ANY means of firearms ownership and self-defense is an assault on ALL forms of firearms ownership and self-defense.
There is absolutely NO ROOM for complacency among ANY Second Amendment supporters. An attack on one is an attack on ALL…
ALL firearms laws are unconstitutional on their face. Imagine the hue and cry if “reasonable” restrictions were placed on First Amendment activities, especially with the “mainstream media”. The Second Amendment is clear–what part of “shall not be infringed” do politicians and the media not understand…of course, they understand full well…it’s part of their communist agenda…
Accurate, reliable, low-recoil, easy to operate, limited over-penetration … seems like everything that bugs them makes these useful for self-defense. So useful, which fed agency was it? stated these were the kind of defensive arms to get.
So, a pistol grip makes it worse for me protecting myself?
No, it makes it better.
Seems like you really want me to just die. What did I ever do to you?
I can’t get past the first few paragraphs because of the statement about people not owning assault rifles. Before you complain about her lack of knowledge, you should correct your own knowledge. People do own assault rifles by the Wikipedia definition.
So, if you’re so incredibly wrong about one of your basic points, how can I trust anything else you have to say? You are telling her that she is wrong, which she is, but you’re just as wrong. Shut up until you correctly represent the people you claim to support.
What an idiot.
There is no reason to ban guns when the problem can be solved with strict background checks. Everything is regulated including every other right in the constitution even free speech. It is illegal for me to incite, slander, plot. Those are regulations on 1st. 2nd should be no different. End of argument.
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