Katie Couric Documentary Edits Gun Activists Remarks

Katie Couric Documentary Edits Gun Activists Remarks

Katie Couric’s documentary Under the Gun edited out remarks by a guns rights group to make them look unprepared for a simple question.

Couric sat down with the Virginia Citizens Defense League and asked them, “If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?”

The clip shows the members sitting silently for around nine seconds, but audio provided to the Washington Free Beacon‘s Stephen Gutowski shows the group provided an answer.

Here is the clip from the documentary:

The group gave Gutowski this audio:

Philip Van Cleave, the president of the organization, said “[V]iewers are left with the misunderstanding that the members had no answer to her question” due to the deception.

The actual interaction lasts four minutes:

“If you’re a felon and you’ve done your time, you should have your rights,” one of the Virginians responded.

“Well the fact is, you do have statutes both at the federal and state level that prohibit classes of people from being in possession of firearms…” another man responds. “What we’re really asking about is a question of prior restraint, how can we prevent future crime by identifying bad guys before they do anything bad. And the simple answer is, you can’t.”

Epix, the channel that aired the documentary, told the Free Beacon:

“Under the Gun is a critically-acclaimed documentary that looks at the polarizing and politicized issue of gun violence, a subject that elicits strong reactions from people on both sides. EPIX stands behind Katie Couric, director Stephanie Soechtig, and their creative and editorial judgment. We encourage people to watch the film and decide for themselves.”

Gun rights advocates have criticized the documentary since it aired on May 15. The producers filed the show with gun control advocates, but lacked experts from the right:

And even when the film gets its facts right, it often makes little attempt to explore both sides of an issue. While everyday gun owners and activists make numerous appearances—some flattering and some definitely not—pro-gun experts are sorely lacking. Gun-control advocates are well-represented by folks like Daniel Webster of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Robyn Thomas of the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and Mark Follman of Mother Jones. Viewers are left believing that there are no similarly well-informed researchers and journalists on the right.

John Lott—the most well-known researcher on this issue who takes a pro-gun view—mentioned on Twitter last week that he was interviewed for about four hours for Under the Gun. He suspected his comments would be shortened to a few minutes; in fact he doesn’t appear at all. Another strong possibility could have been Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck, who supports background checks but is highly dubious of many anti-gun claims, or Eugene Volokh, a prominent constitutional lawyer who often writes about gun issues.

[Featured image via YouTube]

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