Dick Cheney is the first Vice-President to shoot a man since Aaron Burr popped a cap in Alexander Hamilton. However, the real duel is being waged now in the media.
The first volley, much like the bird shot that hit Harry Whittington, is coming from the comedians. After all, this is fair game for comedy.
What may be more problematic is the response from anti-gun advocates James and Sarah Brady:
“Now I understand why Dick Cheney keeps asking me to go hunting with him,” said Jim Brady. “I had a friend once who accidentally shot pellets into his dog – and I thought he was an idiot.”
“I’ve thought Cheney was scary for a long time,” Sarah Brady said. “Now I know I was right to be nervous.”
There are times to use news pegs to plant your take in the media, but are these comments from the Bradys even on target?
Jim Brady, in consecutive sentences, appears to say that Cheney wants to shoot him in the woods. Then, he equates an accidental shooting with idiocy.
Which is it? Is Cheney a deliberate danger? Or is it really an accident?
Sarah’s comment also seems out of place. She thought he was dangerous, as though he had ever invited her hunting?
It’s also not as if Cheney was using a controversial automatic assault rifle, or even a handgun, which was at the center of the Brady cause and mission for so long:
The Brady Campaign, the Million Mom March and the Brady Center believe that a safer America can be achieved without banning all guns.
If you’re not going to ban all guns, then which ones do you leave in society? Hunting rifles and shotguns are too big to be concealed, and too specialized for criminal work. Cheney’s bird gun is the type of weapon that usually attracts the least concern and political heat (unless you’re from PeTA.)
That’s why the Bradys’ comment on this situation seems a little forced, smacks of partisanship, and could dilute their future impact. It plays to choir, and doesn’t appeal to the middle.
