When the MSM reports on guns, a reporter's ignorance of firearms is very damaging to getting the facts across. A "semi-automatic revolver that holds 20 clips and can fire at a rate of 25 rounds a second" confuses people who don't understand firearms. This confusion and misreporting leads a lot of people to develop poorly informed opinions. Those opinions lead to poor laws.
Maybe we can help.
Now, we gunnies tend to think that most reporters are anti-gun and have an agenda. I'm sure many of them do, but I'm also willing to bet that most of them are that way because they simply do not know better. Reporters report on everything from crimes to the rising cost of Watermelon Kool-Aid. You can't expect them to be experts in everything.
So, what better way to help shape the news than to write a small PDF file that illustrates some basic facts about guns that reporters or their editors could use to ensure what's being reported is accurate?
I would assume we'd start off with a glossary. What Semi-Auto is. What a clip is. What a magazine is. Because the easiest thing for an editor or reporter to do is look up the words he or she is using in the story and ensure that they equal what actually happened.
The next section would be brief descriptions of the major types of weapons. Single shot, bolt action, belt fed, automatic, semi-automatic, etc. Descriptions of general magazine capacity, rates of fire, and a few examples.
There could be more, but I'm thinking a super quick guide so that an editor wouldn't have to read through dozens of pages to find what he needs.
Now here's the hard part
I'd like to set it up as some sort of access controlled Wiki to start, then publish a PDF that can be emailed to reporters who might have some facts wrong in their story. You could email something like this.
Dear Reporter, I read your article today entitled "That Punk Pulled a Glock 7 On Me" and I noticed some factual errors regarding the "porcelain gun made in Germany that doesn't show up on airport X-ray machines, and it costs more than you make in a month!". I have attached a PDF that contains a quick guide to firearms that I think would be very beneficial for you and your editors to use. Sincerely,Local Gun Nut
Dear Reporter,
I read your article today entitled "That Punk Pulled a Glock 7 On Me" and I noticed some factual errors regarding the "porcelain gun made in Germany that doesn't show up on airport X-ray machines, and it costs more than you make in a month!". I have attached a PDF that contains a quick guide to firearms that I think would be very beneficial for you and your editors to use.
Sincerely,Local Gun Nut
Being respectful should help get some facts across to those who simply don't know better. We probably can't change the minds of those who are purely anti-gun, but I think the press gets a lot of bad...umm.. press from a vocal few and would be willing to bet plenty of reporters would use something like this if it were available.
Thoughts?