During his politicization this evening of the tragic mass shooting at Umpqua Community College, President Obama requested that the media prepare a chart comparing the number of gun deaths in the United States to deaths from terrorist attacks to show American citizens the scope of our gun problem.
“I would ask news organizations, because I won’t put these facts forward — have news organizations tally up the number of Americans who’ve been killed through terrorist attacks in the last decade, and the number of Americans who’ve been killed by gun violence, and post those side by side on your news reports,” Obama said, adding, “This won’t be information coming from me, it will be coming from you.”
The president’s ever-faithful servants in the media took the president’s request as a challenge to see which publication could present his majesty with his chart the most quickly.
Amazing. “Obama wanted…”
Media: YES YES OKAY YES.https://t.co/Gtz7aP3mC0
— Peter Cook (@Slublog) October 2, 2015
@Slublog Obama : “Jump.”
Media: “Off what?”— Charly J. (@chuck_dizzle) October 2, 2015
https://twitter.com/sjbartlett/status/649762061539368960
Zack Beauchamp of Vox, famous for reporting on a nonexistent bridge between Gaza and the West Bank, handed in this entry for President Obama’s art show, and received a personal note of thanks from the president himself.
Obama challenged the media to compare gun and terrorism deaths. So I did. http://t.co/0JZkoeLKTo pic.twitter.com/C9xj7QH5jV
— Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp) October 1, 2015
Thanks, Zack. https://t.co/gOGzWmYdxQ
— President Obama (@POTUS) October 2, 2015
thanks for making my straw man come to life! https://t.co/zzTXJ7hxMh
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) October 2, 2015
@zackbeauchamp Now please compare lives saved by guns vs. lives saved by terrorism.
— Radical Catholic (@RadicalCath) October 2, 2015
Sorry, Washington Post. We thought your chart was prettier. We would have liked clearer definitions of “gun-related deaths” and “gun violence deaths,” though. Beauchamp’s chart specified “gun homicides.”
Obama wanted news organizations to put gun deaths and terror deaths side-by-side. We did. http://t.co/Nhox2fBijv pic.twitter.com/Jf26cjo3mI
— Philip Bump (@pbump) October 1, 2015
@pbump Did he pat you on the head and give you a treat afterward?
— Entropy (@entropy156) October 2, 2015
@pbump Does the tally of gun deaths include suicides?
— Angela Morabito (@Bear2theRight) October 1, 2015
@pbump Is that homicides or all gun-related deaths? Suicides routinely dwarf homicides and tend to get rolled into general gun death numbers
— Chris Heald (@cheald) October 2, 2015
@pbump @shahidkamal And what happens to that number if you were to subtract out gang violence? Because crooks don't obey gun laws you know.
— Philip Halloween (@evil_avatar) October 1, 2015
@pbump Any breakdown on the gun violence deaths as to who had a legal firearm or not? #itmatters
— Athena (@AthenaTweets) October 1, 2015
https://twitter.com/OhioCoastie/status/649753785699553280
@pbump @jaketapper Do we know how many – if any – gun control laws the alleged shooter broke before going on his murderous rampage?
— J Christiaan Collins (@jccUSA) October 2, 2015
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 2, 2015
@pbump @jaketapper But what if this ends up being a terror incident? What column do you have it now?
— SteveAustin WI (@SteveAustinWI) October 2, 2015
It’s all so much clearer now. These charts were a great idea — please, confiscate all the guns you want.
Journalism is dead & rotting. pic.twitter.com/HVJ7Fxyimi
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) October 2, 2015
https://twitter.com/jthoma8318/status/649756682294308864
@zackbeauchamp what homework did he give you for tomorrow?
— NY Yankee (@freedomcarolina) October 2, 2015
