It's funny when parody can become official Government fact. It's sad when the Brady Campaign parrots that information as if it were holy writ and actually uses it to further their own agenda. Talk about getting suckered on both sides by a gag!
Read more about their ineptitude here.
This isn't the first time
This isn't the first time some government flunky didn't understand the parody of BirdMan ads. Two or three years ago, when the Home E Boy Sights ad from Birdman came out, there was a legislator in VA calling for a ban on the sights. He said they would contribute to more gang violence. He also was called on his comments, and wound up rightly looking like an ass.
As for the Brady Bunch, they'll do anything or say anything to advance their agenda. Picking up on an error in a government report doesn't surprise me.
The Violence Policy Center is even worse, although the Brady Bunch uses VPC stats. I remember a few years ago the VPC came out with a study on concealed carry in which they claimed that permit holder in Texas were 60 or so times more likely to be arrested for gun crimes than the general public. I was curious as to how they arrived at that figure, since the Texas Department of Public Safety at that time published all of the arrest data for permit holders for every possible charge. They even included arrests for hunting with an artificial light.
And it was from the Texas DPS that the VPC got their data. But, unlike the DPS, the VPC didn't just report arrests. They created categories, one of which was "gun crimes."
Into the "gun crime" category they inserted arrests for offenses such as discharging a firearm within city limits, failure to display a carry permit, and carrying in a place that is off-limits for permit holders. The latter two charges are ones that usually only permit holders are arrested for. So--voila!--permit holders are 60% more likely to be arrested for not having their permits with them, or for carrying in a place that the shall-issue law forbids.
Pretty sneaky, huh?
Dick
Monkeyleg's blog