Chicago-Police-Officer-badge

Quick note: I know the difference between passive and active sentence construction. The stories chronicled in this feature do not, by and large, contain passive sentence construction. This TTAG category centers on the way jobbing journos refer to the victims/perpetrators of negligent discharges – especially police and children. They make the victims/perpetrators seem like passive victims of evil guns. For an example, I offer this chicago.cbslocal.com headline: Officer Shot In Foot During Near North Side Chase. You know where this one’s going . . .

A Chicago police officer was wounded Thursday night while chasing a suspect on the Near North Side.

It appears the officer’s gun accidentally discharged, and a bullet hit him in the foot.

It happened in the 900 block of North Cambridge near Delaware before 9 p.m.

The suspect the officer was chasing may have been involved in a separate, fatal shooting that killed a 16-year-old boy in the 1500 block of North Cleveland. The victim died at Northwestern Hospital, police say.

The officer’s injury does not appear to be serious.

But the difference between a report that doesn’t sugar-coat firearms negligence – no matter who’s involved or how understandable the circumstances – is serious. Again, journalists should not shy from the truth about guns: they are only dangerous when used dangerously. That is all. [h/y DG]

25 COMMENTS

  1. The gun just did it by itself. Translation-” I’m scared of things I don’t understand so I tend to lie”

  2. We know what happenned. He put his finger on the trigger as he withdrew it from the holster and his twitchy finger jerked the trigger. Yet another poorly trained big city cop shoots himself in the foot.

    Before you self satisfied Glocksters start thinking about how such a stupid thing couldn’t possibbly happen to you, you have to ask yourself where your finger would be on a paniced draw during a DGU. In general anybody who was brought up on a single action combat trigger learned trigger discipline much better that someone who only has experience with the safe action trigger or DA/SA. There is no such thing as “registering your finger on the trigger” on a 1911.

    • I’m an m&p man and have never learned to “register” my finger. Discipline is discipline, no matter what type of fanboy you may be.

    • I shoot and carry a Glock. What is this “registering trigger” thing you speak of? You make an interesting argument against Glocks that seems to be opposite of what 1911 guys usually say. They claim that the safety prevents NDs not trigger discipline.

  3. “A police officer shot himself in the foot today.
    Meanwhile, 87,000 other gun owners in Illinois didnt”
    There. Fixed it for them.

      • A tip of the hat for the Untouchables reference. I actually made the same one a week ago at a party and got blank stares in return. I chuckled

  4. I yearn for the good old days when it was SUVs that did all the killing, with headlines like:

    “Churchgoers killed by an SUV.”
    “SUV runs off road, kills driver.”
    “Eldery couple killed by SUV during rollover.”
    “SUV maims pedestrian.”
    “Honor student killed by SUV after hitting tree.”
    “SUV careens out of control, kills family of 4.”
    “Bicyclist slammed by SUV, rider dead.”
    “SUV dismembers owner and buries body in back yard.”

  5. And that’s why the TV shows about cops are a joke. Especially the NBC show about Chicago. BTW that neighborhood is a horrible hell-hole so I give the cop props for just being there..

  6. The neighborhood is a small enclave of bad butted up against some of the nicest neighborhoods in the city. You can spend $1 million on a house within a block of there and $5 million or more within 4 blocks. It makes the event more disturbing since my kids go to elementary school about a ten minute walk from there.

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