OK, the Chicago Tribune isn’t a person and doesn’t own a gun. Even if it wanted to, it’s in Chicago, which bans handguns. Saying that, although the paper is staffed with the usual roster of left-leaning journos (college-educated men and women who oppose gun ownership on the basis that they’ve never felt the need to own one), I bet that owner Sam Zell has a concealed carry permit or, at the very least, an armed bodyguard. Or two. Just like Mayor “I’m Gonna Take This Gun And Shove It Up Your Ass” Daley. Anyway, I’m bending the rules for TTAG’s IGOTD award because I’m fed up with the media characterizing unintentional shootings as “accidents” and “accidental discharges.” As Rafael A. Tejada reminded me today at the Providence Revolver Club, they’re all “negligent discharges.” Whenever a policeman, child or any other “innocent victim” shoots themselves or a unfortunate bystander, the Chicago Tribune consistently deploys passive construction to avoid the issue of responsibility. That’s irresponsible. To wit . . .
Authorities say a 51-year-old maintenance man who was cutting the grass in suburban Detroit was accidentally shot in the hand after finding what he thought was a toy gun.
The Oakland County sheriff’s department said that the man struck something in the grass Friday in Oxford Township. When he picked up what turned out to be a .38-caliber gun, it discharged and shot his left hand.
I feel sorry for the guy. But the gun didn’t shoot him. He shot himself. Even guns that have been chewed up by a lawnmower don’t “go off” on their own. Sure, give lawn mower man a pass. So listen up y”all, cause this is it: the guns that you’re handling are dangerous. The Trib should do their part to get that message across with a little ballistic nettle grasping. It’s in their own best interest.
The Tribune is pro gun control. So much so they buried Hizzoner’s offer to sodomize a reporter with a rifle in the middle of their original story about his “Screw the Supreme Court’s decision on our gun laws” press conference. If the paper want us to take them seriously on this issue, they have to stop pussy-footing around when it comes to firearm accidents—whether it’s a kid playing with a gun, a cop who should know better or a poor yutz pushing a lawn mower.
