OK, so I'm trying to reduce my 100 lbs or so of old
American Rifleman magazines to 99 lbs or less.
So I'm going through them, using post-it notes to flag articles I want to cut and keep. So I'm in the November 2007 issue and I find this on page 34, in the "Second Shots" section, where they review tidbits from past issues:
FACTS AND FIRE ARMS
The old sergeant's remarks regarding the ignorance displayed by many newspaper reporters when writing about fire arms are very truthful. It is vastly amusing to read the reports that appear in the daily press, in which it is made to appear that 12 gauge shot cartridges are useful in rifles, that shotguns are loaded with the deadly .303, and where the trigger snapped, when the hammer is meant, besides many other lamentable errors. Another startling and amusing "break" often occurs in reporting a fire in a hardware store or gun shop. Here the scribe is in his glory when he writes of the bullets flying in all directions, "endangering the lives of the firemen and spectators." The enterprising journalist ought to know that if he were to throw a handful of rifle cartridges in the fire, the brass cases would blow off, being lighter than the bullet. Of course, in the event of a cartridge being backed up against a solid obstruction, the bullet would be thrown off with a great deal of velocity, but not sufficient to endanger the lives of the firemen and spectators.
--B. Kelly
This appeared 100 years before,
in the November 1907 issue!Makes you wonder about what they teach in Journalism classes about fact-checking --even today.
Jes' fer grins.
Terry, 230RN
{I'm sure the NRA editorial staff will not mind this quote. I mean, what are they going to do, come out and kill me to terminate my life membership?}
