Thursday, March 01, 2012

Countdown To Hyperbole

Press reports say the ".22 revolver" used by the Ohio High School shooter was a Ruger Mk. III. Leaving aside the little detail of that not, in fact, being a revolver, I have a countdown going, waiting 'til the first news article calls it a "high-powered .22" with bonus points if they add "...automatic..."

There has already been whining about The Awfulness Of Guns in connection with this terrible crime. --'Cos it would have been so much better if he'd splashed his victims with gasoline and flipped a lit match? Laid about with a long-handled sledgehammer?

9 comments:

Tango Juliet said...

Guns are "bad" to some folk. Always will be.

I think it's called "projection."

karrde said...

You should have seen what happened when a deranged adult in the neighborhood started stocking up on dynamite.

In a little town in Michigan, in 1927.

That event caused 45 deaths (38 of them children), the largest mass-murder at a school building in American history.

(Speaking of lists, the Wiki list of fatal events at schools contains scattered references all the way back to the late 1700s...most had fewer than 10 casualties. However, there are various hostage events, bombings, machete attacks, homemade-flamethrower-attacks, shootings, and similar scattered across the 20th Century. The static number may have increased during the last two decades or so, but I'm not sure how the incidence-per-capita has changed. Because world population has more than quadrupled over the last Century.)

Spartacus said...

The members of the press have a long and proud history of demonstrating their ignorance when it comes to guns. You know the old saying, "those that can, do; those that can't, teach". Add to it "those that can't teach, report".

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Personally, a katana would have been my weapon of choice.

Panamared said...

I keep wondering if the press would get all weak in the knees over baseball bats or machetes.

BobG said...

Actually, I'd be more scared of someone laying about with a Louisville slugger or a machete than a 22 pistol. You'd probably suffer more damage, and he would be able to take more than ten swings.

Crucis said...

The local KC news this morning report two black gang-bangers, threw gasoling on a white 13 year-old boy on his front steps and set him on fire.

The local news DID NOT say the two gang-bangers were black, nor what they said, "Here's for you, White-boy." That was heard by the boys mother who was standing just inside the front door and witnessed the assault.

Roberta X said...

Crucis, did you mean for your comment to go with the previous post? It appears to demonstrate the principle of attacking after dehumanizing the victim.

Anonymous said...

In a recent episode Nancy Grace asked her "firearms expert" what the AK represented in AK-47. He hesitated and appeared puzzled. It was obvious he didn't know the answer.

So she said assault? He replied yes. I was amazed. The name evolved from Автомат Калашникова Модернизированный (Avtomat Kalashnikova Modernizirovanniy) which is Russian for "automatic rifle Kalashnikov modernized." 47 stands for the year 1947.
Of course she then went off about assault rifles. I turned it off. So much misinformation