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Media misfire

Scarcely three hours after Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech, Brian Ross and Dana Hughes of ABC News posted a story on their "Blotter" blog (blogs.abcnews.com/ theblotter) implying that the expiration of a 1994 gun law was to blame.

"High-capacity ammo clips became widely available for sale when Congress failed to renew a law that banned assault weapons," began the ABC story, which cited the "expert" opinion of Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence: "When you have a weapon that can shoot off 20, 30 rounds very quickly, you're going to have a lot more injuries."

At the time of that report, there was no information about the weapons Cho Seung-hui used to kill his victims before committing suicide. Since then, law enforcement officials have said the mass murderer used two pistols (reportedly a 9 mm Glock and a .22-caliber Walther), but there was nothing to suggest that large-capacity magazines were involved in the crime.

"Does ABC News have an obligation to report facts, or is peddling a political agenda buttressed by lies their preferred stock in trade?" Bob Owens wrote yesterday at the Media Research Center's blog, NewsBusters.org.

"The Ross entry states that high-capacity magazines 'became widely available for sale when Congress failed to renew a law that banned assault weapons.' This is a patently false statement, containing no truth at all.

"High-capacity magazines have been around for more than half a century, and the sale of high-capacity magazines was not impacted whatsoever by the 1994 Crime Bill. These magazines were freely and commercially available, both in retail stores and online, without interruption, for the 10-year life of the ban, the decades preceding it, and afterward."

"Armed America" author Clayton E. Cramer sent an e-mail Monday night to Robert Stacy McCain of The Washington Times, pointing out another problem with the ABC News item.

"The only time that an extended magazine is going to make a difference is if someone is shooting back at you," said Mr. Cramer, a firearms historian.