"Gun sales are way up, in Pennsylvania and across the country. And many are first-time owners," The Philadelphia Inquirer notes in a "Philly Tips" column. "Here's what you need to know about gun safety."
Gun owners can be forgiven if that assertion causes their antennae to go up. The mainstream press, what I call the DSM (Duranty/Streicher Media), has not exactly been supportive of the right to keep and bear arms. Plus, we have seen too often how the term "commonsense gun safety laws" is contorted by gun-grabbers (with little actual knowledge of firearms and shooting) to mean more infringements that won't do a thing to stop evil people from doing evil things and stupid/lazy people from doing stupid/lazy things.
So, the initial questions ought to be: Who are the experts? What are their qualifications? Do they have an observable agenda?
Scott Charles is the first "authority" we meet, presented as "a gun violence educator and trauma outreach coordinator for Temple University Hospital."
He says he's a gun owner, but if he has any specialized training/credentialing that give him notable credibility as a gun safety expert, whoever wrote up his Temple Safety Net profile failed to list them. Instead, we find he has been "an at-risk youth specialist for the State Department of Education [and] assisted in the development of a statewide rite of passage program for young African American males." ....
"Experts" in firearm matters are all too often those who seek more so called "gun control", and use their skewed knowledge to either further their agenda, or simply promote scare tactics to gain public support. "Common sense gun safety laws" is the regularly heard mantra which uses the term as an all embracing method to try and implement even more deprivation of rights, while responsible gun owners do not need lectured on common sense gun safety.