Defamation by Omission

There is a concerted effort in the news media to downplay the role of public citizens who use guns to save lives, rather than take them.  They tend to get scrubbed from stories.  But before I get to that, I have to pay tribute to a hero.

His name was Jonathan Murphy. He was a retired Marine. He was only 42. He had gone to the mall to get his wedding bands cleaned with his wife. He was the kind of guy who, when he sees something wrong, does something about it. He knew right from wrong, and two gunmen trying to rob a jewelry store was wrong. So he got in the way. He acted. He ran toward trouble when everyone else would have run from it. He did the right thing, and he paid for it with his life. A low-life piece of scum who does not deserve to breathe the same air as the rest of us shot and killed him trying to make his escape.

For the Mr. Murphy’s family, there is no happy ending. There is no emergency trip to the hospital and life-saving surgery. Instead Mr. Murphy died at the scene, attended by his wife, Aimee. Those images are sure to stay with her for the rest of her life. We honor his sacrifice, and we honor her sacrifice.

For justice, however, there is a happy ending. A person with a concealed carry license unholstered on the man who shot the marine, and shot him, critically wounding him. The wretched sociopath who shot an unarmed man without compassion is now under arrest and receiving care in a San Antonio hospital.  He will face capital murder charges. His compatriot is also under arrest, and will also face felony murder charges.

In just a few short weeks we’ve seen a lot of evidence that arming the public works.  The left wing media is working hard to conceal it.

A Lee County Florida deputy owes his life to a passerby who shot and killed a man who was attacking him. A 27 year veteran of the Arizona Highway Patrol was rescued by a private citizen who shot and killed the man who had ambushed him. And a few months before that a burglary suspect in Oklahoma City was scared to flight by a citizen who came to the aid of an officer being beaten with his own night stick. Every month the NRA reports on armed citizens who acted in their own defense, or the defense of others to stop crime, and to stop becoming victims.

While local media picked up these stories of citizens intervening to help law enforcement, the national media can’t be bothered, unless, of course, it’s to slander the concealed carrier or make it appear that the bad guy with the gun, not the good guy with the gun, is really just a misunderstood fellow whose father beat him. A case in point: the San Antonio mall shooting. CNN’s headine on the story read: “San Antonio Mall Robbery Leaves Good Samaritan Dead.” The lead paragraph of the story said:

A man who was killed trying to stop a robbery at a San Antonio, Texas, mall is being hailed as a good Samaritan, and police have arrested two suspects who will face murder charges.

Where is the mention of the CCW holder you ask? Three paragraphs later, almost as an afterthought. And CNN, of course, did not mention that the CCW holder shot the man who had shot Mr. Murphy. And they don’t mention that the police could arrest one of the bad guys solely because he suffered from high velocity lead poisoning thanks to the CCW holder. ABC News doesn’t mention the CCW holder until the fifth paragraph. CBS doesn’t get around to the CCW holder until the eighth paragraph.

Do you see what is happening here?

By scrubbing the CCW holder from the headline and lead paragraph, there is a clear attempt to scrub him from the story altogether. A person searching for defensive handgun use stories would likely read the headline and move on. And even if someone reads a few paragraphs into the story, they are likely to miss the CCW part buried between the fifth and eighth paragraph. Why does the media do this? Because faux “grassroots” groups like Moms Demand Action and the Brady Campaign want the message to be that “guns kill” not that “good guys with guns stop crime.”

Interestingly, on social media, there were numerous suppositions that the other people injured in the shooting were hit by rounds from the CCW holder (two others were shot at the mall by the fleeing suspect, not by the CCW holder). And while the media and the San Antonio Police Chief play up the “gun violence” and “robbery gone wrong” angles, the truth of a man’s heroism, and his attempt to stop violence directed at others goes unreported.

If you ever wonder why it is that stories get written like this, it’s because the newspaper and information businesses are run by people with a decidedly left-wing agenda. They want you to think that all guns – even in the hands of good Samaritans – are evil. But the only real evil is those who try to capitalize on the death of a hero, and defame a good man by omission at the same time.

Shame on you CNN, ABC and CBS. Jonathan Murphy and the unnamed hero who shot the robber deserve better!