EckerNet.Com

The most recent addition to my DVR-dominated TV lineup, is Pawn Stars, of which I\’ve actually become a pretty big fan.  For those of you unfamiliar with the show, it\’s basically about a big Las Vegas pawn shop.  It centers around the varied and interesting items people bring into the shop, and the two-way process of learning/teaching about the item and it\’s significance and then the inevitable negotiations over price.

One of the things I like most about the show, is that the pawn shop employees have no qualms about admitting when they are outside their expertise and need to call in an expert. That\’s especially the case on weapons of all sorts, including guns. I only wish our mainstream media had the same humility, and that includes FoxNews.

The site Every Day, No Days Off slams FoxNews for indicating a suspect had a 37mm grenade launcher on their weapon.

Detectives later searched the room where Woodson had been staying at the Red Mill Inn in Branchburg. Forrest said they seized another Bushmaster .308-caliber semiautomatic rifle with a defaced serial number, a 37 mm Cobray grenade launcher, a second bulletproof vest, a Russian-made night vision scope, a police scanner, a map of a U.S. military installation and a map of an out-of-state civilian community, a Middle Eastern red and white colored traditional headdress and hundreds of rounds of .50-caliber and .308-caliber ammunition.

To which Every Day, No Days Off responds

BIG difference. One is a Destructive Device (40mm) and one is not (37mm).

There is no such thing as \”grenades\” for the 37mm.

Very correct, the 37mm fires things like tear gas canisters, smoke rounds and flares. Although to be fair to FoxNews, vendors frequently market them as \”grenade launchers\”, and the 37mm is the civilian non-destructive version of the true 40mm grenade launcher. But still, it\’s a rather serious mislabeling of a rather critical piece of information and FoxNews deserves to be slapped for it.

I\’m actually more annoyed by this line that Every Day, No Days Off mostly gives them a pass on.

Forrest said the .223-caliber assault rifle that Woodson was carrying had a defaced serial number and had been altered to fire .50-caliber ammunition.

From the description I\’m also assuming it was an AR-15, the infamous \”Evil Black Rifle\” (EBR). Lots of things wrong with just this one sentence.

First of all, the holy of holies….the reference to \”assault rifle\”, whose bastard cousin is the term \”assault weapon\”.  I have yet to find someone that can define \”assault weapon\” as anything that doesn\’t also include a standard hunting rifle, the type sitting in the home of most hunters anywhere. Usually the conversation comes down to the very \”objective\” description of….\”well it looks scary\”, hence the tongue-in-cheek label of \”Evil Black Rifle\” (EBR).

A careful reader will observe though, that they use the term \”assault rifle\”.  Many people use the term interchangeably with \”assault weapon\”.  But others actually do attempt to define it, with one of the core requirements being \”capable of fully-automatic fire\”.  That\’s not the case here, hence it\’s not an \”assault rifle\”.  The reason I know that\’s not the case here is because otherwise the article would have been titled:

HOLY FUCK THE BASTARD HAD A FUCKING MACHINE GUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE\’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!

That not being the case, I think it\’s a fair assumption.

What also irritates me is the reference to a .223-caliber rifle altered to fire .50-caliber ammunition…..well then it\’s not a .223-caliber rifle now is it??

And it speaks to an ignorance of AR-15s, which are popular, in part because they are as modular as all hell. I\’m gonna go out on a limb here and bet that there are probably almost as many AR-15s built from parts by their owner, as there were built in a factory. Don\’t like something on your AR-15, you swap out that specific part for something more your style. The caliber is just one piece of that. You can find AR-15 uppers for everything between the paltry .22 to the .50 BMG, inclusive.

The firearms wasn\’t altered to fire .50, that\’s what it\’s designed to do. The only way it was \”altered\” was having the serial number defaced.

Now I\’m by no means a firearms expert, as much as I may blog about them, but it doesn\’t take much knowledge to spot the inconsistencies, subtle errors, and outright obliviousness present whenever anyone in the media starts talking about firearms. It\’s almost as if it\’s intentional but I try not to be the paranoid sort.

So instead I offer this:

Dear FoxNews, ABC, CBS, NBC, , etc,

Next time you want to bloviate about firearms, run your article by me first. I\’ll make sure you got at least the basics correct. All I ask in return is one firearm of my choice every month. Considering what you pay your talking heads it\’s a bargain. In fact you\’ll probably cost ME money as I\’ll need to spend a ton just outfitting these firearms with all the \”necessary\” accessories….like grenade launchers.

Sincerely,

Kevin Ecker