Virtually every mainstream news report following yesterday's report of the deadly shooting at Washington's Navy Yard claimed the 34-year old ex-Naval reserve petty officer, Aaron Alexis, was armed with an AR-15 assault rife. Even witnesses who were interviewed by cable news networks described the pop . . . pop . . . pop . . . . pop sound of the assault rifle he was firing. It now turns out that Alexis had no such rife. He had a shotgun and perhaps a couple of handguns. He had attempted to purchase an AR-15 at a northern Virginia gun shop but was turned down according to CNN. Law enforcement officials supposedly confused what the gunman used with the guns carried by military personnel who responded to the shooting. The Washington Post' Erik Wemple found at least 270 news articles published on the Internet claiming that Alexis used an AR-15 relying upon law enforcement sources.
Now you would not expect our Mega-Media to take a breath and find out the facts. I briefly channel surfed among Fox, MSNBC and CNN. It was obvious they had nothing to add except endless, and mindless speculation.
ReplyDeleteNow the reaction will be predictable we need more laws, and more Security to lock all of America Down.
The latest I read is that he had ONE handgun and that was taken off the body of a security guard/MP/police officer (not clear about which).
ReplyDeleteI was puzzled by the AR-15 as I had initially seen live twitter reports of a 'shooter with a shotgun' was on the loose.
All this publicized disinfo, and the timing and staged reactions -- no wonder so many are providing evidence on the world wide web, that this Monday morning DC Navy Ship Yard episode is another manufactured hoax.
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