Laughably Stupid Media Mistakes in Gun Reporting: How Much Do They Matter?
1st March 2018
Depends on your expectations, I should think.
Last week Laurence Tribe, a Harvard University law professor, stated (with the smug certainty befitting a Harvard don) that “the semi-automatic AR-15 can fire over 10 rounds per second.” That’s 600 rounds a minute. Um, nope. That weapon’s maximum rate of fire is at best 45 rounds a minute. The list goes on. CNN reported that an AR-15 “shotgun” was used in the 2013 Washington Navy Yard shooting. There’s no such thing as an “AR-15 shotgun.”
I am reminded of the scene in the Eddie Murphy movie THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN where ‘Congressman Johnson’ (from Florida, natch) joins a Congressional junket to somewhere in the South to shoot duck — with AR-15s. That degree of ignorance goes without mention in movies all the time.