It’s important in any debate to separate the serious from the noise. To get to the heart of a genuinely constructive dialogue, you have to be able to differentiate between good-faith arguments and the din of partisans, grifters, and cheap opportunists.
In the debate about gun violence, for example, there are pro- and anti-gun control advocates to whom you should give a serious listen. Then there are the voices you’re better off avoiding whenever they chime in with their two cents. These people rarely, if ever, offer anything meaningful to the conversation. They are interested more in rallying their base while boosting their own public standing. It’s not about persuasion. They just want to be heard, and they’ll say whatever is necessary to reassure both themselves and their followers. This isn’t to say you ought not to dismiss these people automatically. Rather, it’s to say treat them with skepticism, and be prepared to eject the moment it becomes apparent they’re wasting your time.
After this weekend, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., deserves to be added to the list of people who should take a backseat to the more important and earnest voices in the gun violence debate. The senator, who favors additional restrictions on gun owners and gun sales, is actively making things worse by spreading misinformation. On Sunday, for example, Nelson tweeted in response to shooting in Florida, “Just got off the phone with State Rep. Kionne McGhee. Several people dead in Liberty City. Apparently assault weapons used.”
This is not true. Handguns were used in the shooting, the authorities clarified Monday. Frustratingly enough, the senator refuses to issue a correction, and has chosen instead to employ deflection as a defense.
“That was from Kionne,” he explained, referring to the state representative. “That was Kionne’s impression … It was information from somebody right on the scene and I think people are entitled to that information.”
It’s bad enough that his faulty tweet just so happened to blame the shooting on so-called assault weapons, which, interestingly enough, he is in favor of banning. It’s worse, though, that this isn’t even the first time that Nelson has foolishly spread misinformation online in the immediate wake of a shooting event.
On Feb. 14, the same day that a deranged gunman shot and killed 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Nelson did a tour of the networks, spreading nonsense about the shooter. The senator alleged the gunman wore a gas mask and hurled smoke grenades during his rampage. None of that was true, despite Nelson claiming he got his information directly from an FBI agent.
In this particular incident, that senator also blamed his alleged sources.
“I was told this by the FBI…. The [Broward] Sheriff’s Department, days later when I went to the school, corrected it,” he said. “They said the FBI’s mistake was that they saw … with the smoke and they assumed it was a gas mask, as it turned out it was a ski mask.”
Nelson has the power to add something worthwhile to the overall debate. For now, though, he deserves little more than skepticism. Your time and energy would be better spent engaging persons who are not also prone to being wrong.
