Phatty
Member
With the flurry of gun discussions occuring on countless news broadcasts and media stories following the CT school shootings, it's reminded me of the numerous misrepresentations that the media makes when it refers to or describes firearms.
A list of my favorites are the following:
1) "High-powered" rifles. Is there some type of rifle that I don't know about that plugs into an electrical socket and draws a ton of power to operate? And what rifle would be considered low-powered? Every rifle ever described by the media is always "high-powered" so why don't they just call it a rifle? I think I've figured out that a BB gun is a normal rifle and everything else is a high-powered rifle.
2) Automatic weapons (instead of semi-automatic). I think this term is sometimes used intentionally to misrepresent a particular weapon as a machine gun, but most of the time its just sloppy reporting. By far, this is the most common misrepresentation you'll find in a story reporting on a mass gun crime, particularly in the early stages. Not once, ever, have I read a story that reported a person used an automatic weapon to perform a mass killing (in the United States) has it ever panned out. Sometimes the media will even leave no doubt and call the weapon a fully-automatic rifle or machinegun. I'm sure what happens is that some police officer somewhere tells a reporter on the ground that the assailant used a semi-automatic rifle, and somewhere in the translation it eventually turns into a machinegun.
3) "Gun designed to kill humans." Yeah, that's the point. This statement usually accompanies the "assault weapon" description, which I've left off this lest because its so obvious. Sometimes the ultimate measure (killing a person) is the only way to defend yourself or another. And the tool to accomplish that task is a gun designed to kill. Unfortunately, we don't have Star Trek technology where we can set our guns to "stun" instead of "kill."
4) "Designed to pierce body armor." Again, this is usually used in conjunction with "assault weapon."
5) "High-speed" gun (if not talking about a machinegun, which they never are). Are they talking about Billy the Kid? Every semi-auto or revolver will shoot at the speed of the operator pulling the trigger.
Do you have any others to add to the list? (I'm sure that I'm forgetting a bunch.)
A list of my favorites are the following:
1) "High-powered" rifles. Is there some type of rifle that I don't know about that plugs into an electrical socket and draws a ton of power to operate? And what rifle would be considered low-powered? Every rifle ever described by the media is always "high-powered" so why don't they just call it a rifle? I think I've figured out that a BB gun is a normal rifle and everything else is a high-powered rifle.
2) Automatic weapons (instead of semi-automatic). I think this term is sometimes used intentionally to misrepresent a particular weapon as a machine gun, but most of the time its just sloppy reporting. By far, this is the most common misrepresentation you'll find in a story reporting on a mass gun crime, particularly in the early stages. Not once, ever, have I read a story that reported a person used an automatic weapon to perform a mass killing (in the United States) has it ever panned out. Sometimes the media will even leave no doubt and call the weapon a fully-automatic rifle or machinegun. I'm sure what happens is that some police officer somewhere tells a reporter on the ground that the assailant used a semi-automatic rifle, and somewhere in the translation it eventually turns into a machinegun.
3) "Gun designed to kill humans." Yeah, that's the point. This statement usually accompanies the "assault weapon" description, which I've left off this lest because its so obvious. Sometimes the ultimate measure (killing a person) is the only way to defend yourself or another. And the tool to accomplish that task is a gun designed to kill. Unfortunately, we don't have Star Trek technology where we can set our guns to "stun" instead of "kill."
4) "Designed to pierce body armor." Again, this is usually used in conjunction with "assault weapon."
5) "High-speed" gun (if not talking about a machinegun, which they never are). Are they talking about Billy the Kid? Every semi-auto or revolver will shoot at the speed of the operator pulling the trigger.
Do you have any others to add to the list? (I'm sure that I'm forgetting a bunch.)
