More Murder...

This basically is how we shoot ourselves in the foot with the media:

"Some will immediately raise the issue of gun control. The SKS 7.62mm semiautomatic assault weapon, the kind of rifle Vang was carrying, is ill-suited for hunting deer. It is apparently too underpowered to kill a deer with a single shot, the goal of hunters who want to avoid needless suffering.

Former President Clinton, by executive order, barred SKS rifles manufactured in China and Russia. The Bush administration, according to a national gun control group, has specifically allowed their importation from some other countries.

Should they be banned by executive order altogether?"

You may recognize that phraseology...it come from us, from the people we trust to speak to the media in our behalf. While the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial didn't end up buying into the antigun line, they're only the first.

Everybody thinks they can do a good job talking to the media, just like every guy you meet thinks he's a world-class shooter, lover and car mechanic. Yeah, right. As somebody who has taught crisis media relations and who has handled media relations for the firearms industry, even I take a long, deep breath before I sit down to talk with someone from the New York Times, or the networks, or the cable news outlets. And I make damn sure my ducks are in a row before I pick up the phone.