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Gun Lobby says media downplayed role of gun owners in subduing shooter
Josey1
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Gun Lobby says media downplayed role of gun owners in subduing shooterBy RICK MONTGOMERYThe Kansas City StarDepending on the news report you saw in January, a law student's murderous rampage on a Virginia campus ended when other students somehow "pounced on" or "subdued" the shooter.He dropped his weapon at someone's "prompting," a wire service put it.The slippery details largely went unreported, but they are of utmost interest to the gun lobby.The fact is at least two students brought their own handguns into the capture of suspect Peter Odighizuwa, although it's unclear if he saw those weapons in all the confusion of Jan. 16.Still, the National Rifle Association sees a clear moral: Guns can save lives; the media just can't admit it."This isn't uncommon," said association spokeswoman Trish Gregory. "They leave out or don't look for the self-defense aspects of gun ownership."Gun-rights advocates have phoned and e-mailed complaints to media organizations, including The Kansas City Star, which relied on an Associated Press report of the killings in Grundy, Va.John Lott, resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, charged in a New York Post column: "This misreporting actually endangers people's lives" because it "gives misleading impressions of what works when people are confronted by violence."Odighizuwa, a 43-year-old student at Appalachian School of Law, had allegedly shot dead three persons, including the dean, and wounded three others before being subdued.A police spokesman said "it's all speculation," however, as to why Odighizuwa set down his .380-caliber pistol as four students closed in. They included Tracy Bridges and Mikael Gross, who brandished their firearms."Did he see the armed men? That's possible," said Mike Stater, public information officer for the Virginia State Police. "The other possibility is he set down the gun because he had run out of bullets."In all but one of its stories during several days of coverage, AP made no reference to any students being armed, besides the shooter. Nor were armed students mentioned in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times or USA Today, according to a computerized search of news articles.Jack Stokes, media relations manager at AP, dismissed accusations that news groups deliberately downplayed the role gun owners may have played in stopping Odighizuwa. Such charges reflect long-held views within the gun lobby that the media tailor their coverage to the horrors of carrying guns and ignore the benefits."We don't operate that way at all, period," Stokes said.But he did acknowledge being "shocked" upon learning that students carrying guns had helped subdue the gunman. "I thought, `my God, they're putting into jeopardy even more people by bringing out these guns,'" Stokes said.Ten paragraphs into one story about the shootings, AP reported that student Bridges, who has police training, "got his gun out of the car." But the article didn't explain what he did with it.Stokes said it was "extremely important" for news accounts to point out that Bridges was trained to use a gun.News anglePeter Jennings of ABC "World News Tonight" reported only that the alleged shooter "was captured by other students."NBC "Nightly News" said Virginia police "are crediting law students at Appalachian for preventing further loss of life, saying they overpowered the gunman and held him until police could arrive."Bridges appeared on NBC's "Today" show the morning after the shooting. A sheriff's deputy from North Carolina, the law student recounted his version of events, including retrieving a handgun from his car as an armed Odighizuwa stepped outside the school.The coverage suggested to Gladstone lawyer Kevin Jamison that the events "didn't fit the media's preconceived notion of what people should be encouraged to do"-- in this case, to keep and bear arms for self-defense.Jamison fired off a letter to The Star. The newspaper carried an AP report stating the shooting spree ended when students "tackled" Odighizuwa, which was true. But to Jamison, who represents gun interests in Missouri, it seemed strange they would do so without weapons.Steve Shirk, a Star managing editor, said the paper had no reason to question AP's account.The Washington Post fielded complaints as well. Ombudsman Mike Getler queried Virginia news editor Scott Vance, who said his reporters simply did not know that bystanders had gotten their guns.Had The Post known, "we would have included it because it's interesting...," Vance wrote to Getler. "Should we have known? Yes, at least on the second day."That's when the Richmond Times-Dispatch found out. Reporter Rex Bowman wrote the story after interviewing Bridges and Ted Besen, another student who helped stop Odighizuwa. Besen was not armed.Bowman speculated that many news groups were unable to get that story because "they flew into town a day late," after the school closed and many witnesses left the area.A search for the truthThe debate about guns and the media is an old one. In recent years, it has assumed new proportions as Internet users worldwide share news, rumors and letters to the editor with the tap of a few computer keys.The gun lobby cites research to back claims of media bias.Media Research Center, a critic of what it considers a liberal slant to news, tracked network coverage between July 1997 and June 1999. Among 653 gun-policy stories broadcast, 357 stories tilted in favor of gun control and only 36 tilted against gun control, said researcher Geoffrey Dickens."If the media don't convey an outright aversion to guns, there's certainly a reluctance to celebrate them," he said. "Many people working for large media companies did not grow up in a rural setting, where hunters use guns all the time."Still, a nagging wrinkle figures into the law-school shootings: Whose version is true?The Star recently interviewed two students involved -- Bridges and Besen. They gave differing accounts.Bridges repeated that he pointed his weapon at Odighizuwa and ordered the suspect to put his own down, which he did.According to Besen, the first student to tackle the suspect, nothing of the sort happened. He said Odighizuwa set down the gun and raised his arms -- "like he was mocking everyone: ha, ha, what are you going to do now?"-- before the students confronted him.The two armed students had not yet arrived at the scene, Besen said: "Peter had no knowledge anyone had a gun."Virginia State Police confirmed Odighizuwa's weapon was empty by then.Police spokesman Stater said the armed students did assist after Besen and another student, Todd Ross, tackled the gunman. Bridges sat on the suspect while Gross, also armed, provided handcuffs he had gotten from his car.But to Stater's view, the biggest heroes were Besen and Ross -- the unarmed men who lunged at Odighizuwa.Alas, they weren't the focus of attention when a writer and photographer for an NRA magazine came to the campus to interview the armed students.Bridges said they took his picture; NRA spokesman Gregory said, "It was nobody from our staff."It's all gotten way too political for Besen."I'm a gun advocate, but it really irritates me that people are trying to use this as a (political) plug," he said. "The NRA is minimizing the tragedy that happened here. I don't appreciate it." http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/news/breaking_news/2799298.htm
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