There ought to be a law...

May 4, 2009 12:32PM by Blaine Sundrud

(or "Why investigative journalism needs to step up...")

Last week, my buddy Aaron and I went through a rite of passage in Utah called the Concealed Weapons Carry permit class at Rangemasters right down the street from the mother ship. They ran a fabulous class and in the shameless hope of getting free range time, I will be happy to recommend this course to anyone. After 4 hours of safety indoctrination, fingerprints and prison mugshots, Aaron and I are now certified by the great state of Utah to stick a nine-mil in our sweat pants and feel superior to any one else we see at the club.

But all joking aside, guns are serious business. The whole second amendment thing? That's some pretty smart legislation. A well armed suburbia is critical to keeping those terrorists focused on other less armed regions like Somalia (just imagine how much safer the Somalis would be if they could own guns). Why I own a fabulous weapon myself (her name is Marla), and am looking to find new ones to add to my growing collection.

But after going to the local gun show, I began to see a very disturbing trend among the better armed among us... an overriding conviction that if you don't buy your guns and bullets today, tomorrow you won't be allowed to buy anything to put in your cold, dead fingers. I was ready to dismiss this as over-eager sales people playing on the fears promoted by the previous regime.

Until I saw this...

Reported by the Salt Lake Tribune, Representative Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, thinks there ought to be a law to protect our weapons from the claws of the federal government. He is developing legislation that (if passed) will prevent any federal regulations on "coercive" registration or "unconstitutional" background checks from applying to any weapon made and distributed within this state's borders. And why is Utah so concerned about federal regulations? Well based on the talk shows and promotional materials, we are days away from having your Boy Scout .22 confiscated.

News like this gets me riled up (no one puts Marla in a corner)! So I scoured the Tribune yesterday to find out the source of this assault on the right to bear armor-piercing rounds, when I discovered the plan that Obama has laid out for the rest of the his presidency. Given some of the horrors visited on us for the first 100 days (affordable COBRA for people who are laid off, outlawed torture, tax relief across the board, improvements to the national energy infrastructure...), I shuddered to hear what he is planning next.

Let's see: flu pandemic... health care... economy... Taliban... Chrysler... banks... national service... education... equal pay... close Guantanamo... open Cuba... Wait, that's IT?

No mention about putting serial numbers on bullets?

Nothing about ending sales of firearms?

I guess that is because it is not on any list that Obama cares about. So why am I bringing this up?

Because local news should be putting these pieces together.

I love the Salt Lake Tribune. Not only are they a DTI customer (shameless plug here), but I am a long time subscriber. So I am not criticizing them directly when I ask, "why isn't the local news looking at the disparity between what one story says (government is out to get your guns) and the very next story says (gun control is not a priority of this administration)?"

Perhaps the problem is not enough resources to do investigative journalism; the kind of journalism that takes weeks or even months to break open the implications of a seemingly insignificant story. Without that kind of work, the PR agents get their spin printed, the CEOs run their stories unchallenged...

...and people blame Obama for the cost of bullets.

Newspapers (and it doesn't matter if it is pixels on screen or ink on paper, it is still a "newspaper" to me) are the only real source of serious journalists who can do this kind of investigation. They are the ones who protect freedom by exposing the realities under the rhetoric. They are the real guardians of the second amendment (and the first amendment which allowed me to write this screed in the first place).

So to the Tribune (and everyone else), get out there and put the puzzle pieces together... continue to ridicule the tinfoil-hat-wearing mobs... and please keep the talking heads honest. Unchecked fear-mongering is going to be the hyperbolic death of us all. You know to stop that, there ought to be a law...