Most folks who read this blog have have probably seen this “Journalist Guide to Firearms” graphic at some point:
What amuses me about this is that we’ve highlighted when the Associated Press has tried to push journalists into the direction of using the correct language.
Yesterday, AP announced that they are expanding their “weapons” entry. Digital subscribers have full access to their new definitions, but they previewed one on Facebook.
semi-automatic A firearm that fires only once for each pull of the trigger. It reloads after each shot. The form: a semi-automatic rifle, a semi-automatic weapon, a semi-automatic pistol. The hyphen is an exception to general guidance against hyphenating words formed with semi-.
I find this amusing since people who know guns then started a discussion in the comments to improve the language so as to reduce potential confusion with double-action revolvers. We are everywhere, and I love it.
We are everywhere, and I love it.
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It brings no small smile to my heart to know this, as well.
You should probably note for those not familiar with it that the AP publishes the AP Stylebook, which is the most commonly followed style guide for publications.
Whenever I see a gun story on MNSBC, I hit the comments section, just to observe the carnage. There is a dramatic increase in the number of pro-2A responses recently, and most do a fairly good job of battling the emotional gun-grabbers with factual reasoned responses. Good to see people standing up and fighting for their rights.
The problem with that is that for the anti’s this is an emotional issue. No amount of facts or logic will make a dent in their perception of the ‘problem’. It would help more if we could propagate an emotional meme that supports our views in contrast to the theirs. Every single day defenseless children are dying at the hands of evil people because their parents don’t have adequate means to defend them. If only one innocent infant is saved from a depraved teenaged killer isn’t it worth it? Of course it is.
That’s why I always play the rape card: You just want me to be disarmed so that I can be victimized by rapists. You don’t want me to defend myself. You want me raped and dead, and you’re a misogynist.
Yeah, it’s dirty pool, but fuck ’em.
Like has been said before, “Punch back twice as hard.”
Brava.
I am another person who feels warm and fuzzy when I see emotional comments responded to, and often outweighed by, comments explaining facts and rational thought. While it might not change the minds of the emotional, or the minds of those making such comments, it’s bound to have an effect on those who are “on the fence”.
Sometimes my comments are made from an emotional angle. Once, I saw a comment about how someone who defended himself should have “been a man” and confront the teenager he had shot. My response: “I have children to defend, and I am small and weak, and all I want is to be left alone. Why should I have to prove my manhood by responding to threats without a weapon? And why should my wife have to prove *her* manhood, if she were in a similar position?”
My Iver Johnson single shot, break barrel 20 gauge shotgun is, of course, classified as an “assault rifle” by the mainstream media. Since it was given to me by my now deceased Grandfather, it was technically a “straw purchase” and no background check was done at the time *gasp!*, so I expect the ATF to show up any minute now to confiscate it.
One of those people commenting is me. Kinda neat to get noticed.
I started following the AP Stylebook right around the time they started making an effort to get clip and magazine right. Some journalists are pretty good.
Through some backchannels I got the entire AP Stylebook firearms entry:
Oh bugger, the formatting is off.
Thank you for your good work. When sites make it hard to comment, or do not allow commenting, you know that they do not want debate.
I have observed the phenomena all over the web. American freedom fighters are winning the debate with facts. The problem is that there are a lot of false “facts” that the other side use for their debate, and they have to be addressed.
What are you talking about a site that makes it hard to comment? They posted to Facebook where anyone can comment. If you disagree with their listing, you’re free to go add your two cents.
If you’re talking about the fact that they only posted a preview of their definitions on Facebook instead of the full listing, that has nothing to do with their desire for debate or correction. The AP Stylebook is a book/service that you must pay to access.
perhaps we should add to the confusion and start calling them all
“autoloaders”
autoloaders or autoloading would be an improvement on the current newsy practice.
In fact those so-called professional journalists ought to ditch the entire practice of using any variation of the term ‘automatic’ to describe any firearm in any circumstance. All they do is add confusion and no doubt sometimes even deliberately mislead their audience.
If it should ever be necessary in a news story to mention the function of a semi-automatic firearm, they should use the term self-loading. Self-loading is an accurate description, it was used within the firearms industry at least as far back as 1903, and it avoids misleading anyone into believing the subject of the story is a machinegun.