Fox Host Connects Thwarted Attack On Train To Completely Unrelated "Very Strict" French Gun Laws

[SecularMotion]

On August 21, two American service members and several other passengers on a crowded, high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris confronted and overpowered a gunman as he allegedly prepared to open fire with an AK-47 assault weapon. According to French authorities, the passengers who stopped the suspected terrorist attack saved many lives with their actions.

During the August 24 edition of Fox News' Outnumbered, co-host Andrea Tantaros used the incident as an opportunity to criticize gun laws in France. Tantaros said, "The same problems that they have over there are major debates over here. So in France, gun control, very strict laws."

Tantaros' attempt to connect the train attack to France's gun laws makes no sense because nothing happened because of, or in spite, any law. While it's true that guns are more regulated in France than they are in the United States, no French law prevented unarmed passengers from subduing the alleged gunman. Furthermore, the suspect's weapons were reportedly smuggled on board at the train's point of origin, which was the Netherlands, not France.

The fact that the passengers who stopped the attack were unarmed directly contradicts the oft-heard talking point from right-wing media and the National Rifle Association that "the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun." In fact, according to an analysis of mass public shootings in the United States over a 30-year period, ordinary armed civilians have not stopped any public attacks but unarmed bystanders have.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/08/24/fox-host-connects-thwarted-attack-on-train-to-c/205125

[Duckhunter935]

1. Yes those strict gun laws

Sure kept that terrorist from getting that fully automatic AK. Care to comment or are you for the choice of concealed Carry? My guess is you are for that.

[DonP]

2. Media Matters, just stupid, selectively blind, or just hypocritical?

So Media Matters, the same guys that had illegal guns in DC "for protection" but don't want ordinary people to carry, somehow missed the fact that the issue started with a jihadist with a full auto AK that he had no problem getting his hands on, along with 240 rounds of ammo?

I thought the Media Matters people were against "assault weapons" as the choice of mass murderers? Not a problem for them anymore?

They are so busy trying to demonize the NRA, they totally overlooked where that real full auto assault rifle came from. I guess that doesn't matter to them in tightly gun controlled Europe.

Hey, maybe they bought it at a US gun show or online, then they can whine about that.

So are they stupid, selectively blind when it suits their purpose or the hypocrites they appear to be on this issue?

[sarisataka]

4. The third choice is correct

[ileus]

3. And people harp on the reliability of the AK over the AR.

I'll pass on the bare hands against an AK fight, thanks to the 2A.

[pablo_marmol]

5. Google dump-and-run #3,821 NT

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. An active response is the only way to end an active threat.

That they were close enough to grab him is fortune rather than a refutation of the principle that good people must act. Had they decided to run and hide like the crew of the train -- or if they had been too far away to tackle him -- we would still be counting the bodies because gun control kept all the potential victims disarmed but did nothing to stop the gunman.

[the band leader]

7. those passengers were some of the luckiest people on earth

Depending on luck is never a wise policy. That train was a giant gun free zone and if not for a large amount of luck, it would have been the scene of a massacre. The next time something like this happens(and we all know that it's going to happen again), it's very unlikely that the intended victims will get that lucky.

[Eleanors38]

8. Media matters still using armed bodyguards?. Trashing.