Reason.com - Free Minds and Free Markets
Reason logo Reason logo
  • Latest
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Subscribe
    • Crossword
  • Video
  • Podcasts
    • All Shows
    • The Reason Roundtable
    • The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
    • The Soho Forum Debates
    • Just Asking Questions
    • The Best of Reason Magazine
    • Why We Can't Have Nice Things
  • Volokh
  • Newsletters
  • Donate
    • Donate Online
    • Donate Crypto
    • Ways To Give To Reason Foundation
    • Torchbearer Society
    • Planned Giving
  • Subscribe
    • Reason Plus Subscription
    • Print Subscription
    • Gift Subscriptions
    • Subscriber Support

Login Form

Create new account
Forgot password

Gun Control

Gun Control Activists Target Newspaper for Advertising a Gun Show

The outrage at a Florida newspaper reveals a deep antipathy toward all forms of gun ownership.

Christian Britschgi | 5.4.2018 10:35 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests
Large image on homepages | Fred Guttenberg/Twitter
(Fred Guttenberg/Twitter)
Fred Guttenberg/Twitter

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, which has broken major stories about the incompetence and corruption of the Broward County Sheriff's Department, carried two mass shooting–related stories on its front page Wednesday. One was a piece remembering Parkland shooting victim Alyssa Alhadeff, whose fifteenth birthday would have been this week. The other was an article about Esteban Santiago pleading guilty to killing five people in the Fort Lauderdale airport in 2017.

At the bottom of the page was an advertisement for the Fort Lauderdale gun show. Instantly, outrage erupted.

Fred Guttenberg, the father of a student killed during the Parkland shooting, found the juxtaposition so jarring that he tweeted this: "Looks like the Sun Sentinel editor on this page failed. A story on the victims of gun violence and they put a gun coupon on the page. WTF!!!"

That same "WTF" made it into the headline of Politico's writeup of the supposed gaffe. The Miami New Times tut-tutted that "amid all of that stellar journalism, the paper's advertising staff continued taking money from gun sellers."

Many Twitter users were less charitable. "UNACCEPTABLE!! I'd boycott your paper if I took it!" tweeted one person. "They should NOT have accepted that front page ad placement for a gun show, when running two shooting stories on the front. How much were they paid for that? Is that worth more than human lives?" wrote another.

The Sun-Sentinel then did what many media companies would do: It immediately buckled under the criticism. The same day, the paper issued an apology from publisher Nancy Meyer, who also declared a temporary moratorium on gun-related ads. Guttenberg has said that he would like that moratorium to be made permanent, and Meyer says she's open to that.

These criticisms of the Sun Sentinel betray an all-too-common view among gun control activists that gun ownership itself is toxic and inseparable from mass shootings, and that any outward expression of gun culture only feeds this violence. To participate or promote one, they think, is encourage the other.

Unsurprisingly, gun owners don't see such a natural link. For them, guns are a normal part of their everyday lives, not alien items.

"Owning firearms is the manner in which this country evolved," says Jorge Fernandez of Florida Gun Shows, the company that took out the Sentinel ad. "You're talking about hundreds of years of culture. Persons who grew up hunting and fishing, target shooting, or collecting firearms."

Gun shows of the type his company puts on are just another event for enthusiasts. "We're a promotion company just like any other promotion company. You have your musician promoters, you have your classic car promoters, you have motorcycle promoters, beer and wine fests, all those types of promotions have their own draw."

Many gun control activists insist that they are OK with gun ownership in general and merely want a few a more restrictions added, a few more loopholes closed. Meanwhile, the State of California is currently considering a plan to divest its pension funds from retail chains that sell firearms, while the City of Los Angeles is holding up contracts with FedEx for offering discounts to NRA members. A bill has been introduced in the same state to forbid gun raffles. And in Florida, activists are throwing a fit about an event geared toward normal, noncriminal gun owners.

You can call for "moderate," "nonpartisan," "common-sense" gun legislation that you think gun owners might get behind, or you can attack any outward use or sale of firearms as an outrage. It is incoherent to try to do both at once.

Rent Free is a weekly newsletter from Christian Britschgi on urbanism and the fight for less regulation, more housing, more property rights, and more freedom in America's cities.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

NEXT: Brickbat: Sounds Like a Threat

Christian Britschgi is a reporter at Reason.

Gun ControlMass ShootingsFlorida
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

Hide Comments (125)

Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.

  1. Fist of Etiquette   7 years ago

    Guttenberg has said that he would like that moratorium to be made permanent, and Meyer says she's open to that.

    It's good to see newspapers making such a turnaround that they have an abundance of ad revenue and can turn some away.

    1. Chipper Morning Baculum   7 years ago

      Guttenberg, eh? Well, that's not ironic at all.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   7 years ago

        I know, right? Cocoon is almost too on the nose for this situation.

      2. Zeb   7 years ago

        You don't see any gun show ads in anything the original Guttenberg printed, do you? Well there you go.

  2. DajjaI   7 years ago

    Gun rights activists need to realize that these witch hunts aren't against them, but actually autistic kids. The only solution is to expose autism 'treatment', which teaches these kids 'tricks' to appear normal, which of course really just turns them into mass shooters. Otherwise we will just keep going around in these endless circles of outrage. (Similarly, pain patients, who are victims of the 'addiction' hysteria, must infiltrate 12 Step groups if they are ever to stop the madness.)

    Gun rights people should befriend autistic groups (and homeschool groups). It would be epic!

    1. sharmota4zeb   7 years ago

      true

    2. Ben of Houston   7 years ago

      If that's a joke, it's not funny.
      If it's not a joke, that's pathetic. You know nothing of Austism and need to sit down and shut up before you embarass yourself even more.

      1. Michael S. Langston   7 years ago

        You know nothing of Austism...

        You might correct, but right now I'd bet with odds, that you just made a very poor assumption as the only fact you seem to have to support this assertion is that you find the comment offensive.

        Disclaimer: I'm not agreeing no disagreeing with original post, nor am i claiming it is or isn't offensive. And finally, I'm making no claims as to the original coomenter's knowledge about Autuism. My comment therefore is limited only to whether your assertion was presumptive or not.

        1. soldiermedic76   7 years ago

          He has made very similar and fact free comments multiple times. Whenever they run an article on mass shootings. He has been corrected multiple times yet continues with this nonsense.

        2. TxJack 112   7 years ago

          No I find comments made based on stupidity offensive. There is only one fact that needs to be pointed out to show the parkland shooting had nothing to do with autism. Cruz was taking anti-psychotic medications. Psychotropic medications are used to address symptoms of delusions, paranoia, hallucinations and other psychotic features. NONE of these issues relates to autism. Autism is a developmental disorder. If impacts a person's social functioning, not their connection with reality. Before you say it, I know this correct because I have been in the field for over 20 years and worked with kids and adults who have autism as well as those who have serious, mental health issues. The difference between the two is night and day. Sadly, it is those with mental health issues who usually fall through the cracks because their treatment can run into the hundreds of thousands annually. When working in Dallas County we had 6 people taking the drug Clozoril for schizophrenia. The cast of the medication for those 6 people was over $1,000,000 (MILLION) each year. When someone who has no insurance or resources is put on medication this expensive, how long do you think it is before they are suddenly dropped from the system?

    3. BYODB   7 years ago

      It has nothing to do with autism.

      It might, however, have to do with anti-psychotic medications and more specifically the period of time when someone that is on anti-psychotics but are switching to a new medication.

      It is known that during that period of time that psychotic breaks can happen. And, notably, this is the first era of Human history where children are by-and-large medicated and at least some small percentage of them are on anti-psychotics.

    4. TxJack 112   7 years ago

      This has to be without a doubt the most idiotic and uninformed comment I have every read anywhere. You are blaming autism for mass shootings? This only proves you know nothing about the disorder. Cruz had mental health issues. A diagnosis of autism had nothing to do with his actions. As for the "tricks" you refer to, again it only demonstrates your stupidity. Autism is a SPECTRUM not a single diagnosis. There are many people who have autistic traits who are as you put it normal. If you are the example of normal, I would hope I am not because you are a complete moron. Do us all a favor and throw your keyboard in the trash and spare us your insight on any subjects in the future.

  3. Fist of Etiquette   7 years ago

    It looks like the one thing everyone can take away from the repeated coverage of this outrage is that there's a gun show at the Ft. Lauderdale War Memorial Auditorium May 5 & 6.

    1. Pathogen   7 years ago

      Yeah, but how much is parking gonna cost me?

    2. ThomasD   7 years ago

      Guns?

      At a war memorial?

      Sadly I'll bet the traversing mechanisms have all been welded.

  4. sage   7 years ago

    How dare student activists try to keep me from selling nuclear weapons with no background checks. I thought this was America.

    1. Vin_Decks!!!   7 years ago

      Yeah, that's exactly what's happening, you tiresome fucktard. Bet you hate the 1A as much as the 2A, dontcha, dipshit?

      1. sage   7 years ago

        No need for name calling, madam.

        1. Just Say'n   7 years ago

          To be fair, your statement was profoundly stupid

          1. sage   7 years ago

            You misspelled "sarcastic".

            1. Fist of Etiquette   7 years ago

              This was a weird thread.

              1. sage   7 years ago

                I have a knack.

                1. ThomasD   7 years ago

                  I got it Sage. Sadly, it's hard to parody leftists as their idiocy knows no bounds.

                  1. Finrod   7 years ago

                    See: Poe's Law.

            2. Rossami   7 years ago

              No, we got the sarcasm. It was still profoundly stupid.

        2. Mark22   7 years ago

          Sometimes there is. Like in response to your feeble attempt at sarcasm.

    2. Kivlor   7 years ago

      I wasn't aware that there would be nuclear weapons for sale at this gun show. An enterprising individual could probably buy up their wares and get a good start on an international arms business.

      1. sage   7 years ago

        Not only nuclear weapons, but full semi auto nukes with bump stocks. Buying in bulk gets you a discount.

        1. Kivlor   7 years ago

          Forget starting an international arms race. I'm going to carve out my own country.

    3. Quo Usque Tandem   7 years ago

      Dang! Personally I'm hoping to buy an Ohio class nuclear sub fully armed with ballistic missiles! / SARC

      I don't know if your intent was to be sarcastic, but if not what a stupid trope; no one is talking about nuclear weapons, or fighter jets or bombers, or artillery or tanks; it concerns guns, and such idiotic statements contribute nothing but feckless palaver.

    4. Ben of Houston   7 years ago

      The problem is that we can't tell who you are mocking, Sage. Are you mocking the pro-gun lobby for wanting unrestricted firepower, or mocking people who treat guns as Satan incarnate?

      1. BYODB   7 years ago

        Yes?

    5. Ben of Houston   7 years ago

      The problem is that we can't tell who you are mocking, Sage. Are you mocking the pro-gun lobby for wanting unrestricted firepower, or mocking people who treat guns as Satan incarnate?

    6. ace_m82   7 years ago

      First of all, get the money to buy one, and they we can talk...

      (For any idiot government employee who reads this, this is a RHETORICAL device, and I have neither the desire nor the money to purchase or use a nuclear weapon. Also, woodchipper.)

  5. sharmota4zeb   7 years ago

    These criticisms of the Sun Sentinel betray an all-too-common view among gun control activists that gun ownership itself is toxic and inseparable from mass shootings, and that any outward expression of gun culture only feeds this violence. To participate or promote one, they think, is encourage the other.

    Yeah, opponents of gun culture want to take away all guns. A few years ago, UK activists complained about "lad culture". The term changed to "rape culture" and crossed the pond. If you have a "gun", you should buy a gun.

    1. KevinP   7 years ago

      Correct.

      Dem. Congressman Eric Swalwell: Ban "assault weapons", buy them back, go after resisters

      1. Mark22   7 years ago

        Three months later, [Dreshawn] Lee took his revenge by shooting and killing Jackson with an AK-47-style semiautomatic assault rifle.

        Obviously, that just shows how racist the 2A is! If all guns had been banned, then Dreshawn Lee couldn't have killed Jackson. It was the easy availability of guns that condemned Lee to a life in jail. That's why the white male gun toting patriarchy is evil! /sarc

  6. DajjaI   7 years ago

    Trump campaigned on starting new witch hunts and wars against immigrants, muslims, blacks, drug users and women. However these groups allied with each other to thwart him at every turn. So now the country's attention turned to the only vulnerable group left: gun owners. Of course, this will be quickly quashed as well. Gun rights are simply too precious to Americans and we will awaken from this hysteria. And then the only issue left will be abortion - Roe v Wade will be overturned by the Supreme Court. But after that, it's the promised land, baby. (Or A Handmaid's Tale, your choice.)

    1. KevinP   7 years ago

      No one wants to ban or confiscate guns. Ever! It's a crazy and paranoid idea!

      Survey: Majority of Democrats want to ban semi-automatics, half want to ban all guns

      Quotes:
      When pro-gun control advocates tell you they don't want to take your guns, they actually want to take your guns.

      A YouGov survey released this week shows a significant number of self-identified Democratic respondents support the idea of total gun confiscation.

      82 percent of Democrats say they favor a ban on semi-automatics, which would include not just rifles like the one used in the Feb. 14 Parkland massacre, but also most handguns.

      That's a hell of a ban.

      On the question: "Do you favor or oppose ? [banning] the sale of all handguns, except those that are issued to law enforcement officers."

      If you can believe it, Democratic respondents were split on this question. Forty-four percent said they would support such a ban, while a oh-so-slightly larger 46 percent said they would oppose it.

      That's not all! The survey also found that Democratic respondents were loosely split on whether the Second Amendment ought to be repealed. Thirty-nine said they'd oppose it, while 41 percent said otherwise. The broader population, on the other hand, overwhelmingly opposed the idea by 60 percent to 21 percent.

      1. Quo Usque Tandem   7 years ago

        Thank you for that information.

  7. Brandybuck   7 years ago

    I note that the picture of the gun is a pistol. Are pistols now back in the sights of gun ban advocates? I thought it was just "assault" weapons? And what does a pistol have to do with the Parkland shooting.

    The knee's not jerking anymore, it's a never ending spasm.

    1. Kivlor   7 years ago

      All firearms are always in their sights. If they ever get a ban on the things they say they want, they'll immediately move the goalposts and clamor for a ban on black-powder weapons too.

      1. KevinP   7 years ago

        No one wants to ban or confiscate guns. Ever! It's a crazy and paranoid idea!

        Ceasefire Oregon, NRA agree assault weapons ban would bar nearly all semi-automatic sales

        Quotes:
        KATU, Salem, Oregon: The National Rifle Association and the gun control group Ceasefire Oregon don't agree on much, but KATU discovered they both believe a proposed ban on assault weapons in the state would effectively bar sales of nearly all semi-automatic guns.

        1. Kivlor   7 years ago

          Honestly, seeing the UK freak out on knives has made it impossible for anyone to really defend the idea of "common sense" weapons control/legislation.

          1. mad.casual   7 years ago

            Honestly, seeing the UK freak out on knives has made it impossible for anyone to really defend the idea of "common sense" weapons control/legislation.

            Let's be clear. The action on knives was intentional. The freak out was on shears, screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches, flashlights, t-ball bats, etc.

            They don't want to ban and seize guns they want to ban and seize everything down to and including pool cues, table-legs, and wiffle ball bats.

            1. Ron   7 years ago

              this is true and its why Karate and other Asian fighting methods were created because their leaders denied them self defensive weapons so they learned how to use common farm tools for self defense. I am not skilled at physical self defense so I will keep my guns for that purpose..

          2. Pathogen   7 years ago

            Knives? That nation of crazed psychopaths and depraved football hooligans cannot even be trusted with glass nor bottles .. and you would give them cutlery?

            1. Kivlor   7 years ago

              I'd give them nothing. No cutlery, no cups or bottles. Basically all tools are a combination of bad for the environment / able to be used as weapons, therefore the only answer is to ban them all. And fire, it's dangerous and bad for the environment, so that has to go too. Which means no cooking. They can starve.

              1. mamabug   7 years ago

                Or newspaper. Can't forget to ban the newspaper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millwall_brick

          3. ThomasD   7 years ago

            Parliament is still hot over that thing that happened back at the end of the Eighteenth Century.

    2. KevinP   7 years ago

      No one wants to ban or confiscate guns. Ever! It's a crazy and paranoid idea!

      Democrat Candidate for Sheriff Daryl Fisher Suggests Killing People to Take Their Guns - and audience applauds

      1. Leo Kovalensky II   7 years ago

        It's worked for drugs, why wouldn't it work for guns?

      2. Rich   7 years ago

        "I promise that, if you elect me, my Sheriff Department will be completely gun-free. Even my personal firearms, and those of my deputies, will be destroyed."

      3. mad.casual   7 years ago

        I'm gonna need to see proof that that isn't, in fact, Jordan Peele.

    3. KevinP   7 years ago

      Yes, pistols are back on the ban list.

      Survey: Majority of Democrats want to ban semi-automatics, half want to ban all guns

      Quotes:
      ...

      On the question: "Do you favor or oppose ? [banning] the sale of all handguns, except those that are issued to law enforcement officers."

      If you can believe it, Democratic respondents were split on this question. Forty-four percent said they would support such a ban, while a oh-so-slightly larger 46 percent said they would oppose it.

      That's not all! The survey also found that Democratic respondents were loosely split on whether the Second Amendment ought to be repealed. Thirty-nine said they'd oppose it, while 41 percent said otherwise. The broader population, on the other hand, overwhelmingly opposed the idea by 60 percent to 21 percent.

  8. Vin_Decks!!!   7 years ago

    The amazing thing about leftist authoritarians (but I repeat myself) is that they always manage a two-fer attack when trying to abrogate the 2A by also attacking the 1A.

    Great job, guys! Did you know? :
    "A group of Johns Hopkins University researchers released a report Tuesday indicating that the late Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin was only one great purge away from creating a communist utopia. "Our research demonstrates that if Stalin had shipped a mere 100,000 more people to Siberia, the whole communist experiment would have worked out perfectly," said historian and report co-author Franklin Morrison, adding that all of the USSR's corruption, hunger, and disease would have disappeared overnight if Stalin had simply been able to let a few million more Ukrainians starve to death. "

    1. Ecoli   7 years ago

      That HAS to be from the onion. Please tell me that is a spoof!

      1. Kivlor   7 years ago

        It is from the onion.

        1. Quo Usque Tandem   7 years ago

          It is often difficult to tell now, the difference between something from The Onion and an actual news headline. Poe Horizon; are we there yet?

          1. BYODB   7 years ago

            The Onion has it's share of nutjobs, but I gotta admit they are one of the best satire outlets around and even though they might have their bias, they tend to skewer everyone sooner or later so I tend to forgive them.

      2. MatthewSlyfield   7 years ago

        Yep, it's from The Onion, but you can't trust what's in The Onion to be a spoof anymore.

        1. ThomasD   7 years ago

          Tomorrow's headlines today!

    2. CatoTheChipper   7 years ago

      The Johns Hopkins quote is from an Onion article. Unfortunately, it is now very difficult to distinguish between satire and the real antics of progressives. For example, I am pretty sure that the above citations of Democrat opinion on blanket gun bans is real. I'm also pretty sure that the brouhaha regarding the propriety of a white teenage girl wearing a Chinese-style dress is real. (OT: My son is fluent in Mandarin and tells me that the Chinese message boards are full of ridicule for SJW condemnation of such cultural appropriation. Chinese kids who follow US news have even coined their own epithet, baizuo, for SJWs and other white progressive elites.)

      1. Quo Usque Tandem   7 years ago

        Agreed, have [as I commented above] often thought the same as "real" life increasingly imitates parody. I am anticipating the SJW nonsense approaching its logical denouement.

      2. ThomasD   7 years ago

        Based upon my own experiences travelling in China, and hosting a Taiwanese student, they think we are ALL idiots. It's only a question of first or second order.

    3. Hank Phillips   7 years ago

      It worked. They now have a Reason writer calling rights-hating Kristallnachtzis "Gun Control Activists."

  9. Jerryskids   7 years ago

    Fred Guttenberg

    Obviously no relation to Johannes, father of the free press.

    1. MatthewSlyfield   7 years ago

      I'm pretty sure Johannes Guttenberg charged money for his printing presses. 🙂

  10. SIV   7 years ago

    You can call for "moderate," "nonpartisan," "common-sense" gun legislation that you think gun owners might get behind, or you can attack any outward use or sale of firearms as an outrage. It is incoherent to try to do both at once.

    It's effective "motte and bailey" public relations. Propose banning and confiscating nearly all semi-autos and "weapons oif war". Insist the 2A only protects the "right" of state governments or flintlock ownership. Then say "no one wants to take your guns away".

    NRA: "gun grabbers want to ban almost all commonly owned firearms"

    Media: FACT CHECK: "Gun safety advocates insist they don't want to take anyone's guns away"

    1. KevinP   7 years ago

      No one wants to ban or confiscate guns. Ever! It's a crazy and paranoid idea!

      Hawaii, Which Registers Guns and Medical Marijuana Users, Starts Disarming Patients

      Quote:
      Hawaii is one of 29 states that allow medical use of marijuana, but it is the only state that requires registration of all firearms. ...you can probably surmise what this means for patients who use cannabis as a medicine, which Hawaii allows them to do only if they register with the state. This month many of them received a letter from Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard, instructing them to turn in their guns.

      "Your medical marijuana use disqualifies you from ownership of firearms and ammunition," Ballard says in the November 13 letter, which Leafly obtained this week after Russ Belville noted it in his Marijuana Agenda podcast. "If you currently own or have any firearms, you have 30 days upon receipt of this letter to voluntarily surrender your firearms, permit, and ammunition to the Honolulu Police Department (HPD)...

      1. Eidde   7 years ago

        Those Reefer Madness guys shouldn't have guns - God help anyone who gets between them and their nachos!

    2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   7 years ago

      The term "gun safety advocate" is even misleading.

      1. Pathogen   7 years ago

        Well, to be fair.. that's the guy who recommends you unload your firearm before cleaning it. Sound advice, actually..

  11. Just Say'n   7 years ago

    "Both sides" he whimpered as he was led toward the reeducation camp. "Sure, I'm being punished for a thought crime, but the other side once had Milo speak at a campus. I mean that's just indefensible." His fellow inmates were not gracious toward him. "Are they booing me?" He asked us. "Well, screw them. They're all Nazis, anyways. Why else would they be in a reeducation camp?" He didn't seem to grasp the irony of his statement. Perhaps his greatest humiliation was when the guards took his long beloved leather jacket and handed him his orange jumpsuit. As the jacket was peeled away from his body a visible tear slowly slid down his cheek. "Both sides" he said again as he fought back tears.

    1. DajjaI   7 years ago

      What was his crime? Attempted "hecklers' veto"?

      1. Just Say'n   7 years ago

        You can't possibly be ignorant enough to not know that the heckler's veto is not constitutionally protected.

        1. DajjaI   7 years ago

          Well then he can send all the booers to 'double secret re-education' camp.

      2. TrickyVic (old school)   7 years ago

        """What was his crime? Attempted "hecklers' veto"?""

        Collusion?

    2. ThomasD   7 years ago

      Well said.

      1. ThomasD   7 years ago

        Although the entire pretext is absurd.

        Gillespie will never be sent for 're-education.' He will always knuckle under.

  12. croaker   7 years ago

    This is going to devolve to woodchippers and helicopters. Just you watch.

    1. MAGA my NAGGA   7 years ago

      It certainly seems like it'll be the right's pinochet, or the left's stalin, so choose one.

    2. Quo Usque Tandem   7 years ago

      Red States of America and Blue States of something else. Peoples Republic and Indian Country, Kurt Schlichter. I am coming to believe it.

  13. AB Negative   7 years ago

    "I'd boycott your paper if I took it!" should be Twitter's new motto.

  14. Bubba Jones   7 years ago

    This was indeed an epic fail on the part of the editor at the newspaper. They should have used a different layout.

    The rest is just opportunistic trolling.

    1. Rich   7 years ago

      It could have been a great opportunity for the gun show. Run a full page ad to the effect of: "Out of respect for the victims of the Parkland shooting, we will offer free admission -- and a 20% discount on purchases -- to members of their families."

  15. Bubba Jones   7 years ago

    Speaking of editorial fails

    "Alyssa Alhadeff, who's fifteenth birthday would have been this week"

    You meant "whose".

    1. Rich   7 years ago

      You wouldn't say Alyssase instead of Alyssa's, would you?

    2. SIV   7 years ago

      You probably expect Britches to know how to read an analogue clock too.

      1. TrickyVic (old school)   7 years ago

        That requires a small bit of thinking. So it's a bridge too far.

  16. mad.casual   7 years ago

    Does this story stink like a rotting corpse full of old cheese to anyone else?

    I find it barely believable that a local paper of any consequence runs ads on the front page like that. On top of that barely believable ad on the front page, I find it hard to believe an editor who isn't a waste of human flesh is so out-of-touch with their readership (Twitter-rage aside) as to do something like this. On top of *that* I find it hard to believe a gun show promoter would pay knowingly pay for a front page slot right below two not-exactly-timely-or-front-page stories like this.

    It seems much more likely that somebody involved is gaslighting the fuck out of things in order to enrage the readership into taking a course of action that they wanted to take anyway.

    1. AB Negative   7 years ago

      My guess is the promoter had no idea their paid placement (front page ads are a thing) would land below those stories or probably would not have wanted it. Gun shows in Florida are not popular right now. This very one is already having its permit to War Memorial Auditorium (let that sink in) revoked. Regarding the paper, your hypothesis is a worthy one. I can absolutely imagine the editors doing that.

      "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don't rule out malice." -- Heinlein's Razor

      1. AB Negative   7 years ago

        Note, re: "not popular" I assume the appropriate qualifications can be read in. Obviously they are popular with those who attend.

    2. MAGA my NAGGA   7 years ago

      It's a shitty little South Florida rag of no consequence. The kind of newspaper that just sits there in a bag baking in the sun for a week before it finally gets scraped off the driveway and chucked.

      1. mad.casual   7 years ago

        We have a few around here. *tilts nose up in order to look down it* They don't run banner ads on the front page like that.

  17. Ken Shultz   7 years ago

    Yeah, I see most of the people arguing for gun control the same way I see most of the people arguing against global warming.

    For most people, their opposition to global warming has nothing to do with the science. It's all about being opposed to the authoritarian and socialist solutions on offer. Because they don't want to be subjected to authoritarian and socialist solutions, they end up arguing about the science--when the science has little or nothing to do with their opposition.

    They don't argue against string theory the same way because no one is using string theory to justify using the coercive power of govenrment to force them to sacrifice their standard of living for polar bears and future generations.

    It's the same thing with gun control--only more so. Their support for gun control doesn't have anything to do with facts, statistics, logic, the effectiveness or even relevance of their solutions, etc. They simply don't want there to be any guns in the world because they don't want there to be any shootings. They prefer security to freedom, and they believe there's a trade off between them.

  18. Ken Shultz   7 years ago

    The way to win people over to the cause of global warming is through persuasion--but you'll never persuade them to make sacrifices willingly so long as you're also advocating authoritarian socialism as a solution. It's the authoritarian socialism that renders persuasion ineffective. We won't win the gun control people over by arguing with their statistics or logic either--because that is not the crux of their opposition to gun rights. We need to persuade them to prefer freedom to security and that whatever trade offs there are between them, it isn't a zero-sum game.

    Then we'll start to make more progress.

    1. Hank Phillips   7 years ago

      What global warming? Unvarnished temperature records graph as a trendline with negative slope--a cooling trend this past century.

  19. OpenBordersLiberal-tarian   7 years ago

    It's encouraging to see people pushing back against gun fetishists.

    #GunSense
    #NeverAgain

    1. Ken Shultz   7 years ago

      Is it the fetishism you oppose or the shootings?

      Or maybe it's the people you don't like.

      Do you hate people with other hobbies, or is there something special about this bunch?

      Is it the camo or seeing rednecks wearing fanny packs?

      Gun fetishism never hurt a fly.

      1. Kivlor   7 years ago

        I don't know about OBL, but as far as hobbies go, I hate LARPers. They and their stupid hobby should be illegal.

        1. CatoTheChipper   7 years ago

          I hate trolls and parody commenters.

          Very much like hate speech, the comments of trolls and parody commenters are not covered by the First Amendment. Such comments are calculated to trigger snowflakes, so they are violence rather than protected expression. Obviously, this activity should be illegal and trolls and parody commenters should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To be sure, I usually oppose the death penalty, but you got to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

          1. ThomasD   7 years ago

            Did you know that a black hole of collapsed sarcasm is the source of all irony in the universe?

            It's science.

    2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   7 years ago

      #PimpinAintEasyButItsNecessary

  20. creech   7 years ago

    Next up: Puritans and busybodies urging newspapers to stop reviewing/accepting ads for violent movies, and sexy movies, etc. which promote human trafficking.

    1. Just Say'n   7 years ago

      Well that's different for reasons

  21. MAGA my NAGGA   7 years ago

    "UNACCEPTABLE!! I'd boycott your paper if I took it!" tweeted one person"

    So you're saying they should do what you want, even when you admit you aren't a customer.

  22. Rhywun   7 years ago

    outrage erupted

    "You're welcome."

    /The Internet

    1. Ecoli   7 years ago

      I had an eruption just this morning.

      You're welcome.

  23. C. S. P. Schofield   7 years ago

    The Gun Control arm of the Establishment Left abandned any semblence of honesty or logic decades ago. They can't argue the law because the Bill of Rights is against them. They can't argue statistics because the statistics are against them. They can't make arguments by anecdote because the self-defense anecdotes would bury them. The authorities they would appeal to are transparently incompetent and corrupt.

    Basically, all they have left is pounding on the table.

    1. ThomasD   7 years ago

      And intimidation. Which is what this was - a total setup designed to send a message to other publications.

    2. TrickyVic (old school)   7 years ago

      All they have is a bully campaign against the NRA.

    3. Tionico   7 years ago

      Reminds me of a former well known large nation's leader pounding his shoe on the table at a United Nations General Session meeting....

  24. Pathogen   7 years ago

    And, in other news.. Free use of private property causes untold misery and suffering for the unwashed masses.. The government should do something!

  25. Red Rocks White Privilege   7 years ago

    Not outrageous--ads for liquor stores, whose sales cause 2.5 times the number of deaths caused by firearms.

    1. Quo Usque Tandem   7 years ago

      Hey no fair; we've already been down THAT road and nobody wants to talk about it.

  26. Rufus The Monocled   7 years ago

    The tyranny of the mob in all its macabre glory.

    1. Quo Usque Tandem   7 years ago

      Are we not supposed to have something, envisioned by some wise guys a couple hundred years ago, to protect us from that?

      1. Pathogen   7 years ago

        Yes.. the "firearm"..

  27. Pat001   7 years ago

    Considering the sad state of the newspaper biz, I can't imagine any newspaper turning down a fully paid, two-color quarter page advertisement for anything short of child porn. In addition to newspaper ads, there are radio ads and billboards alongside Florida Interstates promoting that same gun show.

  28. MaleMatters   7 years ago

    If you don't give up your guns to curb violence, you'll be shot.

    On a serious note, mass killers no doubt suffer from many ailments. But most share two traits: dad-deprivation and a "purpose void." That's the finding by Warren Farrell's stunning new book "The Boy Crisis."

    If taken to heart by thousands, "The Boy Crisis" has the potential to literally transform society.

    Search for it at Amazon, etc, and read the free sample pages.

    Excerpts:

    "School shootings are homicides that are also suicides?even if the boy doesn't end his own life literally, for all practical purposes, his life is still ended."

    "at the height of the Depression, 154 men committed suicide for each 100 women. Yet by 2015, in good economic times, boys and men were committing suicide three and a half times more often than women."

    "This detachment creates what I call the "gender empathy gap": caring less about a boy dying than a girl. So much so that it would not even occur to a reporter to do the research that would uncover that the police are twenty-four times more likely to shoot someone male than someone female."

  29. Mark22   7 years ago

    "UNACCEPTABLE!! I'd boycott your paper if I took it!"

    You'd have to line your cat litter boxes with something else!

    That's pretty much what print papers are used for these days.

  30. Hank Phillips   7 years ago

    The exact same thing happened in 1938 when altruistic Christian National Socialists passed commonsense gun legislation to keep firearms out of the hands of of folks they deemed innately selfish and unconcerned with the common good. The newspaper is simply putting on a show of altruism and giving the sanction of the victim. Looters like that sort of thing almost as much as military parades.

  31. Flinch   7 years ago

    Well, some people have learned [or been taught] to hate America, and this trifecta of an insult shows the enemy within is a greater danger than any arab ever hoped to be. It attacks guns, free speech [about guns in this case], and last but not least... commerce. We are supposed to grant criminal status to people advertising legal activities? No, I'm will just stick to calling the boycott crowd feckin loons. I marvel at how people can hate, yet refuse to leave the country. It's only a short step for them to begin using their dining room table as a bathroom seems to me. They should boycott breathing, on account of its the same air normal americans [gun owners] use: take a deep breath and count backwards from 5,000 and see what happens.
    As for me...I don't go to gun shows, because it just doesn't interest me. But others love it, and to each his own.

  32. Tionico   7 years ago

    EEdjits can't seem to understand that it ain't the gun, its the one holding it.

    Same with cars... we've all seen lately that individuals have taken common vehicles, of the sorts used used and seen on our roads daily, many of them not even owned by their perverted users, to kill and maim innocents. SO. shall we impose background checks, fingerprinting, waiting periods, secial Mother May I Cards, to be able to use these lethal hunks of iron and steel in pubic? Would any of those mindless Floridians, all knicker-be-knotted, come unglued if there were photos from a bad highway crash scene where people died, and a used car lot advert, on the same page? And yet, highway deaths outnumber gun inflicted deaths by at least a factor of two. High school age kids are several times more likely to die because of a car being misused (often in conjunction with a phone, their constant companion everywhere) than in a mass school shooting.

    And NONE are admitting that 98% of mass public shootings take place in a Certified Defenseless Victim Zone, so mandated by federal law, and of those ALL have been perpetrated by individuals who were taking, or had recently stopped taking, psychoactive mood altering, antidepressant, SSRI, and similar drugs.

    Yet the mindless kneejerk dweebs focus on the hardware? It is NEVER a hardware issue, its ALWAYS the software controlling it.

  33. Wolf Larsen   7 years ago

    I found in a local newspaper here a car advertisement on the very same page the news broke of that couple drove their kids off a cliff.

    I was incensed, I tell you.

  34. bandar taruhan togel   7 years ago

    you might right but i think not like that.

    daftar akun togel
    situs taruhan togel

  35. bandar ceme   7 years ago

    i think that no good

    poker uang asli
    bandar ceme

Please log in to post comments

Mute this user?

  • Mute User
  • Cancel

Ban this user?

  • Ban User
  • Cancel

Un-ban this user?

  • Un-ban User
  • Cancel

Nuke this user?

  • Nuke User
  • Cancel

Un-nuke this user?

  • Un-nuke User
  • Cancel

Flag this comment?

  • Flag Comment
  • Cancel

Un-flag this comment?

  • Un-flag Comment
  • Cancel

Latest

Environmental Regulations Are Literally Baking Europeans to Death

Jack Nicastro | 7.3.2025 3:38 PM

Federal Prison Guards Allegedly Beat an Inmate to a Pulp. The Supreme Court Says He Can't Sue.

Billy Binion | 7.3.2025 2:48 PM

Jurassic World Rebirth Chases Summer Movie Nostalgia

Peter Suderman | 7.3.2025 1:40 PM

The $4 Trillion 'Big, Beautiful Bill' Breaks the Bank and Violates Congress' Own Budget Rules

Veronique de Rugy | 7.3.2025 11:25 AM

Trump's New Trade Deal Has a Clear Winner: Vietnam

Eric Boehm | 7.3.2025 11:10 AM

Recommended

  • About
  • Browse Topics
  • Events
  • Staff
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Shop
  • Amazon
Reason Facebook@reason on XReason InstagramReason TikTokReason YoutubeApple PodcastsReason on FlipboardReason RSS

© 2024 Reason Foundation | Accessibility | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

r

Do you care about free minds and free markets? Sign up to get the biggest stories from Reason in your inbox every afternoon.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

This modal will close in 10

Reason Plus

Special Offer!

  • Full digital edition access
  • No ads
  • Commenting privileges

Just $25 per year

Join Today!