NICK KRISTOF IS REWRITING PRESS RELEASES from the Violence Policy Center and the Brady Campaign and passing the result off as an oped. Again.

What’s more, I’ve been to gun shows, and Kristof’s pastiche of leftie stereotypes is unconvincing. Did he even actually attend the show he says he visited?

UPDATE: Reader Jeff Paulsen says Kristof is either lying or incredibly gullible:

Quote from the article: ‘As I tried the feel of a used $129.95 Polish assault rifle with a handy bayonet, the seller beamed. “That’s a powerful gun,” he said. “It’s the only one I know that can put a round through bulletproof glass.”‘

Somebody is full of shit, here. Most any hunting rifle will shoot through “bulletproof” things just fine. (“Bulletproof” is really about proof against handgun bullets.) Either we have an unscrupulous seller lying to make his sale, or Kristof making up details and quotes to demonize gun shows.

For that price, it was probably an SKS, firing the 7.62×39 cartridge – ballistically equivalent to Granddad’s 30-30, and good on deer. It is also debatable whether or not the SKS is an “assault rifle” – it fires semi-automatically from a 10-round fixed magazine.

Yes. The quotes ring false to me — but it’s possible that some folks were just having fun with a guy whose chief claim to firearms expertise appears to be that he’s had guns pointed at him.