PA Bill Number: HR541
Title: Recognizing the month of October 2024 as "Domestic Violence Awareness Month" in Pennsylvania.
Description: A Resolution recognizing the month of October 2024 as "Domestic Violence Awareness Month" in Pennsylvania.
Last Action: Reported as committed
Last Action Date: Oct 1, 2024
MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle Falsely Claims An Assault Rifle is Different Than a Gun :: 11/07/2017
Assault rifles are actually not guns at all — that’s according to MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle, at least.
During a morning segment of MSNBC Live, the host made the false, patently absurd claim during a discussion on repealing the Second Amendment.
“Why do you need any assault rifles? An assault rifle is different than a gun. A hunting enthusiast and one who needs an assault rifle, those are two different things,” said Ruhle.
Of course, assault rifles are actually not different than guns — they are guns.
Additionally, prior to Ruhle going off script, she described the weapon used by the Texas church shooter as an “assault-type rifle.” The actual weapon used by Devin Patrick Kelley to kill 26 was a AR-15 variant called a Ruger-556 — the number being a reference to the 5.56x45mm NATO round the rifle shoots. While these guns are typically referred to as modern sporting rifles (MSRs), Ruhle’s description as “assault-type rifle” isn’t completely inaccurate as the weapons are semi-automatic versions of their military counterparts.
As the segment went on, however, Ruhle began referring to Kelley’s Ruger as an “assault rifle,” despite reports stating it was simply an MSR and did not have a fully-automatic feature — as the addition of the fully-automatic option would classify it as an assault rifle.
Ruhle’s claims — that Kelley used an “assault rifle” and fully-automatic rifles are different than guns — weren’t the only talking points in the segment that were provably false. New York Times columnist Bret Stephens appeared on the show to offer his insights on gun control, as the moderately conservative writer recently penned an op-ed calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment.
“Tens of thousands of people are being killed in the United States every day so [gun owners] can look cool with an AR-15,” said Stephens, spewing an outright lie. CDC data states the number of Americans who die from guns a day is 93, which is including suicides.
Yet, Stephens’ ridiculous claim was not fact-checked by any member of the panel, nor were Ruhle’s falsehoods.
The members of the panel did not cite any data to back their statements, but they did reference an article by The Onion — a satirical news outlet — to justify their claims.
You can watch above, via MSNBC.
[featured image via screengrab]
Follow the author on Twitter (@calebecarma).
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
