On Tuesday, CBS' FBI: Most Wanted recycled every gun control cliché in the left's ideological arsenal in a nasty premiere attacking the Second Amendment.
The episode, "Iron Pipeline," begins with a family of four getting shot dead in a motel in Georgia.
The father in the murdered family had trafficked in illegal gun sales. His wife and sister-in-law bought guns legally in Georgia that he sold illegally up north in states with stricter gun control laws.
The FBI is brought in because the killer stole the family's stash of firearms. The episode quickly turns into an hour of snarky anti-Second Amendment dialogue and overwrought gun control tropes.
When the team is told that the killer "finished off the whole family before Dad got off a shot" an agents says, "So much for a good guy with a gun, huh?"
Since the murdered father was selling firearms from Georgia, the agents discuss guns from the South ending up as illegal weapons in New York City.
ATF Agent: We call I-95 the Iron Pipeline. Guns traffic from Florida and Georgia up the interstate to cities in the northeast with tougher gun control.
FBI Agent Barnes: Yeah, half the illegal weapons we took off the street when I was in NYPD traced back to the South.
If gun control laws don't stop criminals from acquiring them illegally, maybe strict rules in blue cities that prevent law-abiding citizens from defending themselves is a bad idea?
None of the characters voice such a viewpoint, of course. The implication instead is that New York City's problem with violent crime is the fault of guns from the South. Blaming guns is easier than acknowledging the disastrous effects of soft-on-crime policies.
While the FBI team is investigating the case, television news announces a school shooting in Delaware.
Pro-second amendment characters in the episode appear indifferent to the massacre. A gun shop owner comments on how sales go up whenever there is a mass shooting:
Gun Shop Owner: Can't afford to part with inventory at the moment. Every time there's a shooting like that Delaware thing, we get a line out the door. Everybody and their granny wants an AR while they still can get them.
Agent Barnes: Nice to hear the murder of children is good for business.
Gun Shop Owner: I mean, poor kids, sure. But I sell guns for a living.
When the killer of the family from the motel later guns down a cop, he shouts, "God bless the Second Amendment!"
Subtlety isn't the show's strong suit.
After catching the motel killer, the FBI team learns of an unexpected weapons sale. A man who lost his daughter in the school shooting bought one of the stolen guns:
Agent Barnes: Yeah, he's been all over the news advocating for gun control, right?
Agent Gaines: Okay, so what's he doing buying a trafficked assault rifle?
They search his laptop and find a video on "How to Load and Operate an AR-15." The only gun the writers of this show appear to have ever heard of is the AR-15.
It turns out the grieving dad bought the weapon so he could hold the head of the "Northeastern Rifle Association" hostage and force him to post a picture of his dead daughter. In the end, the picture doesn't post on the hostage's feed because it is sensitive content. The grieving father then bursts into pained laughter and is captured by the FBI.
The audience could be forgiven for bursting into pained laughter at such bad writing.
In the past, FBI: Most Wanted has had some of the most hackneyed anti-conservative episodes in the FBI television franchise. Last night's premiere was no exception.
