The Star/Tribune’s editorial board is a group of people, apparently in their sixties and seventies, who seem to spend their days pining away for a time when the media could say anything they want without fear of being caught out in public by people who know better.

Those days are long gone.  Only the editorial board doesn’t seem to know it, or recognize it, as shown in last week’s editorial calling for, at the least, hearings on a “universal background check” bill.

And like everyone on the institutional left, they participate – with all the grace of a German jazz band – in the left’s only real tactic on the issue of gun control; Lie First, Lie Always.

Why, it’s almost as if Heather Martens, in addition to being a State Representative, is a Strib editor…

Lie #1 and #2:   Rewriting The Constitution AND History.  The editorial starts with a little diseducation about the Constitution:

State Rep. Tony Cornish is a well-known and zealous advocate for gun rights…[when]when Cornish uses the power of his chairmanship to block even a hearing on proposed legislation that would require background checks for firearms sold at gun shows and online in Minnesota, he goes too far.

Well, no.  He exercises his power as a committee chairman.  Don’t like it?  Elect a DFLR majority in the House.   The GOP won the 2014 elections, and so we’ve Cornish.  He goes exactly as far as he’s supposed to.

And the other lie?  Do you want me to go back to 1998 and 1999, when DFL committee chairs kept “Shall Issue” (“concealed carry”) legislation from the floor using exactly the same tactic?   Care to guess what the Strib editorial board said then?

Lie #3:  Settled Science:  If you’re new to the Second Amendment Human Rights debate, this may be new to you – but it’s actually an old warhorse (emphasis added):

The bill proposed by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, and Rep. Dan Schoen, DFL-Cottage Grove, who is a police officer, is yet another attempt at common-sense changes that are broadly supported by Minnesotans and that have proved effective in other states.

We’ll touch on the “broad support” bit below.

“Universal background checks” have proved utterly ineffective in other states.

Lie #4:  Misrepresentation!:  And who supports these bills?

They are backed by Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, national groups that emerged in response to the 2012 mass shooting at a Newton, Conn., school that left 20 children and six adults dead.

Well, no.  Both groups were formed by liberals with deep pockets who’ve been wanting to kill off the Second Amendment for decades.  There were formed “as a response” to Newtown in exactly the same way Gallagher’s act was created “in response” to watermelons;  to Everytown and Moms Want Action, the dead children were nothing but convenient props ¹.

Lie #5:  Show Me:  Oh, please:

A quick check of armslist.com for Minnesota shows 198 pages of listings for arms and related accessories. Want a brand-new, double-action Glock for $400? Shipped directly to your home and no questions asked.

Show us the link and the ad.  Now.

I call BS.

Lie #6:  Settled Science:  Next, the Strib presents out-of-context numbers – paging Kim Norton – or, to put it another way, lies about numbers:

A Star Tribune Minnesota Poll in January showed an overwhelming 82 percent of Minnesotans support universal background checks. That included 74 percent of gun owners and 71 percent of Republicans polled.

Let me propose a wager to the Strib Editorial Board.  We’ll find some of those 82, 74 and 71 percent – the vast majority of whom were asked “would you supposed universal background checks to lower gun crime” with no further details, as if that was all there was to it.  Then we’ll explain to them that:

• The “background check will be completely ineffective at dealing with crime; while dilettantes like the Strib claim “Supporters know this simple preventive measure takes less than three minutes and can keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them”, detractors add “which is why criminals don’t take the background checks, and stick with buying stolen guns or using straw buyers“
• The background check will only serve to register guns in the hands of the law-abiding citizen.  That’s it.

Then, let’s re-poll them.  I’m going to guess “82, 74 and 71” drops to 30, 20 and 10 right before our eyes.

Because the facts are not the rosy, cherrypicked fairy tale that the Strib Editorial board has been spoonfed by Michael Bloomberg.

Lie #7:  Desires, Satisfied!:  The Strib goes on:

There is a growing desire to curb gun violence, and advocates for background checks deserve to have their points of view heard.

Gun violence is being curbed; it’s down 50% in 20 years.

And the gun grabbers have had their points of view heard.  The smart people rejected them. Which is why they’re having to resort to misleading editorials to gull the gullible.

Not So Much A “Lie” As Stupid:  Can you imagine an editorial statement like this, ever?

Martin Luther King is a smart guy; he should be able to help find an elusive middle ground between “full rights for Negroes” and “the urge to keep Negroes down”.

No?  You can’t?  Well, good.  You have a human soul, and you understand freedom is not negotiable.

So when the Strib actually writes:

Cornish has dealt with complex and bedeviling public safety issues before, and with nearly 15 years of legislative experience under his belt, should be capable of finding the elusive middle ground.

Dear Strib Editorial Board:  Here’s your “middle ground” on our Constitutional rights:

There.

1}  “Oh, Mitch – that’s unfair isn’t it?”  Nope.  These people absolutely are that cynical.