MSNBC’s MS NOW with Katy Tur offered yet another masterclass in emotional storytelling over empirical analysis this week, as the host teamed up with left-wing activist journalist Mike Spies to advance the narrative that America’s refusal to embrace sweeping gun control is the product of a broken system—and an evil gun industry immune from accountability.
The segment, built around the familiar lament that America isn’t more like Australia, began with Tur invoking the usual talking points: school shootings since Columbine, a pre-recorded soundbite from Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) predicting that Congress won’t solve the problem, and a reverent clip of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promising more gun “reforms” in a country that already has some of the most draconian laws in the world. In Tur’s view, if Albanese can act swiftly after an antisemitic beach massacre, why can’t we?
“Why not here?” she asked, with the kind of puzzled sincerity that leaves little room for the Second Amendment—or the reality of American constitutional law.
But the real agenda came into focus once Rolling Stone’s Mike Spies joined the discussion. Spies, whose reporting frequently blurs the line between journalism and advocacy, took the opportunity to push a policy proposal straight from the gun control lobby’s wish list: gut the liability shield that protects gun manufacturers from being sued when their legal products are misused by criminals.
CNN staffers are furious there’s no “discussion” of more gun control.
MANU RAJU: [The Safer Communities Act] doesn’t have a ban on semi-automatic rifles. It does not have universal background checks. Certainly no mandatory buyback. All the things that the Chris Murphys of the… pic.twitter.com/fyabn4OQAW— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) December 16, 2025
Spies complained that Democrats keep focusing on background checks after every shooting—something he considers a “misplaced emphasis.” Instead, he wants a full-scale legal assault on the firearms industry, likening it to the campaign that eventually crippled Big Tobacco. The problem, he said, is the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), which bars frivolous lawsuits against gun manufacturers when their products are lawfully made and sold, then used by others to commit crimes.
But here’s the rub: that liability protection doesn’t make the gun industry “immune.” It simply puts it on equal legal footing with every other industry that sells legal products. You can’t sue a car manufacturer because a drunk driver ran a red light. You can’t sue a knife company because someone used a chef’s knife to commit a crime. The idea that guns should be singled out for legal persecution has always been about ideology, not justice.
Tur didn’t challenge any of this. She didn’t ask why holding manufacturers liable for the criminal misuse of lawful products isn’t a dangerous legal precedent. She didn’t ask how punishing gun makers would stop criminals who already ignore existing laws. And she certainly didn’t question the selective framing of Australian policies, which may reduce mass shootings but do nothing to stop knife attacks, home invasions, or organized crime—problems that persist despite near-total civilian disarmament.
Instead, she nodded along as Spies asserted that gun makers are “at odds with public health,” a phrase designed to reframe a constitutional right as a pathology to be eradicated.
This isn’t news. It’s ideological messaging dressed up as journalism. And it’s a textbook example of how a media ecosystem that claims to care about facts routinely buries them in pursuit of political ends.
What didn’t get mentioned in the segment? That gun ownership in the U.S. has grown dramatically over the last 20 years while violent crime has declined overall. That defensive gun use, according to CDC-commissioned studies, occurs anywhere from 500,000 to 3 million times per year. That most mass shootings take place in gun-free zones. That the majority of gun deaths in the U.S. are suicides, not mass attacks. Or that universal background checks wouldn’t have stopped most recent mass shootings, since the perpetrators passed background checks.
