{"id":24469,"date":"2014-09-11T10:17:10","date_gmt":"2014-09-11T14:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/?p=24469"},"modified":"2014-09-11T10:17:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T01:21:28","slug":"journalists-guide-guns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/journalists-guide-guns\/","title":{"rendered":"Mistaken Labels and Terms – The Journalists’ Guide to Guns – SHARE THIS!"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Not to Look Like an Idiot When Writing About Firearms<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By Ben Langlotz<\/a><\/em><\/h3>\n

(Editor Note: Ben Langlotz is the nation’s leading firearms patent and trademark attorney, and the author of “The Bulletproof Firearms Business<\/a>” available on Amazon. Ben is also a pro-bono attorney for our industry organization the National Shooting Sports Federation<\/a> and has been a lifetime defender and supporter of firearms freedom.)<\/p>\n

Journalists. Bless their hearts. As a rule of thumb, any time we read a news story about a subject or incident we already know a lot about, it turns out that about 25% of what\u2019s reported is simply wrong.<\/p>\n

This is why knowledgeable gun owners distrust many news stories involving guns: because too many \u201cjournalists\u201d display an ignorance of firearms that would be laughable if it weren\u2019t so appalling. If they can\u2019t get their facts straight about gun technology and shooting, then we don\u2019t trust them on much else.<\/p>\n

For over 24 years as a patent attorney, I\u2019ve taken pride in my ability to explain stuff effectively. I\u2019m known as \u201cThe Firearms Patent Attorney<\/a>\u201d because I represent more firearms companies<\/a> than any other patent attorney or law firm in the world (by a wide margin). That means I spend lots of time explaining how guns work. And I have to keep it simple because I\u2019m not just writing for specialized patent examiners, but for juries and judges, in case there\u2019s ever a lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The best compliment I ever get from inventors about a patent application is \u201cWow! You really understand my invention!\u201d So maybe if I\u2019m good at making gun tech understandable, I might be the right guy to help out the technically-illiterate journalists. Here we go:<\/p>\n

\"Speeding<\/a>

Anti-gun activists show their ignorance. (Photo: Everytown for Gun Safety)<\/p><\/div>\n

Lesson #1: They\u2019re \u201cCartridges,\u201d Not Bullets<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bullets are little lumps of lead. Inert, harmless little pieces of soft metal. They\u2019re a component of ammunition, but they\u2019re not ammunition. What you journalists are almost always talking about when you mistakenly use the term \u201cbullet\u201d is \u201ccartridge.\u201d Cartridges (or \u201crounds\u201d) are little units of ammunition that go \u201cbang\u201d when they\u2019re hit just right. The gunpowder burns, the bullet flies away, and the case stays behind with the gun.<\/p>\n

Here are some correct(ed) usage examples:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 a bill to limit magazine capacity to 10 bullets<\/span> rounds\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026a bill to limit purchasers to no more than 50 bullets<\/span> cartridges per day\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026bullets have been recovered as far as a mile from the rifle range\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

One classic example of how this issue can confuse the ignorant is the case when a neighbor objecting to a gun range nearby \u201csalted\u201d her home\u2019s roof gutters with a few \u201cbullets\u201d to make it appear that they were unsafely escaping the disputed range. She foolishly had tossed live cartridges onto the roof to roll into the gutters, and the responding deputy Sheriff rolled his eyes, knowing the guns don\u2019t expel live rounds of ammunition.<\/p>\n

Michael Bloomberg\u2019s well-funded anti-gun \u201cEvery Town for Gun Safety\u201d group created a laughable propaganda image showing a rifle cartridge shooting out of the muzzle of a gun barrel.<\/p>\n

\"Spiderman<\/a>

A Candy Magazine?<\/p><\/div>\n

Lesson #2: They\u2019re \u201cMagazines,\u201d Not Clips<\/h2>\n

When you journalists write about \u201cclips\u201d you\u2019re always wrong. Always.<\/p>\n

Magazines are containers that hold a bunch of cartridges, and are inserted into a gun to load it all at once, making reloading quick. Unless a gun looks like an old-time cowboy or a bird-hunter might use it, it probably has a magazine. A magazine itself is just a little sheet metal or plastic box with a spring inside (much like a Pez dispenser), and presents no danger of any kind. For pistols, they\u2019re contained entirely in the grip, and for rifles, they usually stick out below the bottom, in front of the trigger.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re curious, \u201cclips\u201d are archaic devices known only to gun enthusiasts, and are essentially never used by modern police or military, or by people who use guns for self-defense or sport. They\u2019re used with old-style military rifles (like the WWII \u201cGarand\u201d they carried in Saving Private Ryan<\/em>).<\/p>\n

If you must know, clips are for loading rifles that don\u2019t take magazines. They\u2019re little strips of metal that hold a set of cartridges by their rear ends so they can be shoved into the rifle all at once. But they never come up in the news, so you can simply delete the word from your journalist dictionary. I can assure you that over all my years in the gun industry, I\u2019ve never heard anyone use \u201cclip\u201d as slang for magazine. Maybe Hollywood gangsters and anti-gun reporters still do, but no one else does.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, worrying about large magazines giving criminals firepower is pretty silly, because the whole point of magazines is how quick and easy it is to change them. I\u2019ve seen live demos in which a shooter changed pistol magazines so fast it was a blur. And rifle magazines can be changed almost as fast with a little practice.<\/p>\n

So, if you\u2019re writing a story that involves magazines and are still confused, my advice to journalists is to drop by any gun shop and tell the guy behind the counter that you\u2019re working on a story, and would like to see how magazines work. Trust me, you\u2019ll learn all you need to know.<\/p>\n

Lesson #3: Calibrating Your \u201cCaliber\u201d<\/h2>\n

This one confused me back when I started learning about guns. All you need to know is that caliber usually refers to the diameter of the bullet (and of the barrel of the gun that fires it).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no clear rule, so don\u2019t even bother trying to explain it. If a cop tells you the caliber of a gun used in a crime, just report it, and we\u2019ll know what it means even if you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The cartridge designation will give you a good idea of the caliber, but can lead to confusion. 357 Magnum has a 0.357 inch diameter bullet. But so does a 38 Special. A kid\u2019s 22 squirrel rifle has the same bullet diameter as the M16 military rifle but they\u2019re otherwise different in almost every other respect.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, there\u2019s no such thing as a \u201chigh caliber\u201d anything. Those are meaningless words used by anti-gun writers to make some gun sound fearsome. Same for \u201chigh power.\u201d That M16 and the AR-15 fire the same round, but they\u2019re anything but high powered. The cartridge they fire is considered borderline weak and inhumane for a thin skinned little deer, and is actually less powerful than just about every other cartridge used by ordinary hunters. Those 22 caliber bullets are much smaller caliber than 30 caliber (0.300 inch diameter) hunting bullets. They\u2019re way smaller than the 50 caliber (half inch) bullets used in hotdog-sized cartridges that cost $5 a pop, and are used on those big belt fed machine guns on aircraft and by wealthy target shooters (who Dianne Feinstein worries are practicing to shoot through her armored limousine).<\/p>\n

Lessons #4-11: Random Thoughts You Need to Know About Guns<\/h2>\n

#4. Guns aren\u2019t required to be \u201cregistered\u201d in most jurisdictions.<\/strong> Please don\u2019t write that a gun was \u201cunregistered\u201d if there is no law requiring it to be. To those of us who know (there are lots of us) an \u201cunregistered gun\u201d sounds as absurd as an \u201cunregistered baseball bat.\u201d<\/p>\n

#5. No self-respecting gun owner uses the phrase \u201cpacking heat.\u201d<\/strong> It\u2019s called \u201ccarrying\u201d, whether concealed or open. \u201cPacking heat\u201d is old-time gangster slang with biased connotations. Avoid it unless you\u2019re writing an anti-gun op-ed or a bad detective novel.<\/p>\n

#6. Machine guns are legal (under federal law, and in most states).<\/strong> To buy one, a person must pay a $200 tax, undergo a background check, and wait maybe a year or more for the paperwork to process. But only a limited number of specially registered ones may be bought and sold by people. These are all older than 1986 and there are so few that what should cost $1000 new in a free market costs $10,000 or more. (There\u2019s something like 1 legal machine gun per 1000 adult American males). That means that they\u2019re only for wealthy collectors like Steven Spielberg, which explains why they aren\u2019t used in crimes. Ever.<\/p>\n

#7. Silencers are legal in most states.<\/strong> They\u2019re properly called \u201csuppressors\u201d and we also use the slang term \u201ccan.\u201d \u201cSilencer\u201d is OK to write, but it bothers a few gun geeks because they don\u2019t make a gun literally silent (maybe as annoyingly loud as an air nailer \u2013 not the \u201cphffft\u201d or \u201cptew\u201d of Hollywood movies). In Hollywood, only bad guys use them. In reality, it\u2019s only good guys who passed a background check and paid a $200 tax just to make their guns a little easier on everyone\u2019s ears.<\/p>\n

#8. Sinister gun collections.<\/strong> When you\u2019re reporting on some backwoods kook who was raided by a SWAT team, remember that all those guns and ammo you\u2019re breathlessly reporting on are probably perfectly legal. The cops know that, but they know you\u2019ll ignorantly imply that there\u2019s something illegal about all the guns and ammo they\u2019ve laid out on the table for you to photograph for the evening news. It\u2019s actually quite normal for upstanding gun enthusiasts and hunters to own dozens of firearms (or to wish they did). It deceives your readers and amuses gun enthusiasts when we read that \u201cthe arsenal included over 1000 rounds of ammunition.\u201d That\u2019s because when we spend a weekend taking a shooting course, or just out having fun shooting at targets, we can easily shoot 1000 rounds (no it\u2019s not a cheap hobby). 5000 rounds might sounds like a lot, but that much 22 ammo can easily be hand carried in a shoe box by a strong boy.<\/p>\n

Also, a personal gun and ammo collection isn\u2019t an \u201carsenal\u201d unless you\u2019re trying to demonize the owner, and strike fear in the hearts of your readers. It\u2019s an \u201cample collection,\u201d and for most gun owners, never ample enough.<\/p>\n

#9. Ammunition in a burning building is no danger to firefighters.<\/strong> When the powder burns, the case just pops off the bullet. Firefighters with heavy suits and eye protection are in no danger. An excellent online video by SAAMI (one of my clients, and the organization that sets technical standards for ammunition) titled \u201cSporting Ammunition and the Fire Fighter<\/a>\u201d shows how surprisingly safe ammunition is in a fire and subject to other extreme stresses (and it\u2019s cool to watch truckloads of ammo get shot up and burn up!)<\/p>\n

#10. An \u201cassault rifle\u201d is a military rifle that can shoot full auto.<\/strong> \u201cSemi-automatic\u201d means that a single shot is fired for each trigger pull, and the gun automatically loads the next round. Most pistols carried by police officers are semi-automatic.<\/p>\n

An \u201cassault weapon\u201d is a term made up by people trying to ban semiautomatic rifles, by falsely implying that they\u2019re full-auto assault rifles.<\/p>\n

\u201cModern Sporting Rifle\u201d is the industry standard term for the popular AR-15 and similar rifles with a military appearance. I prefer \u201cSport Utility Rifle.\u201d<\/p>\n

#11. The NRA isn\u2019t the \u201cgun industry lobby.\u201d<\/strong> They may have millions of individual members whose interests they represent when lobbying lawmakers and pursuing civil rights lawsuits. But the real \u201cgun lobby\u201d is the National Shooting Sports Foundation<\/a> (NSSF) that represents all the gun companies (I\u2019m their trademark attorney, too). The NSSF has the mission: \u201cTo promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports.\u201d They also publish an excellent booklet<\/a> that not only educates journalists, but is a goldmine for gun enthusiasts looking to sharpen their firearms knowledge.<\/p>\n

\"Bennet<\/a>

Ben Langlotz, firearms patent attorney.<\/p><\/div>\n

So, that\u2019s about all a journalist who\u2019s seeking to report the facts clearly and accurately needs to know about guns. However, if they\u2019re looking to \u201cchange the world\u201d like a bunch of \u201ccommunity organizers\u201d then this might not do much good.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Ben Langlotz<\/a> is a patent and trademark attorney with 24 years\u2019 experience, and his clients include numerous firearms industry companies<\/a>. He is the author of The Bulletproof Firearms Business \u2013 The Legal Secrets to Success under Fire<\/a>, which is the leading book to help firearms business owners to navigate the minefields of patent and trademark law. Mr. Langlotz also publishes the Bulletproof Firearms Business Newsletter<\/a>, which reaches over 1000 firearms industry owners and executives each month.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article is subject to the author\u2019s copyrights, but permission is granted for the article to be distributed and republished in its entirety including the author bio and this paragraph, with all hyperlinks intact.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Langlotz is a patent and trademark attorney with 24 years of experience working with the firearms industry. He is an author and educator intent on helping firearms business owners to navigate the minefields of patent and trademark law. Who better to offer some first rate advice about firearms nomenclature? Read on for Langlotz’s advice and learn how to keep yourself from sounding like an idiot when you write about firearms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[132,102,122],"featured":[],"hunt365":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-buzz","9":"tag-feature-articles","10":"tag-r2kba"},"yoast_head":"\nMistaken Labels and Terms - The Journalists' Guide to Guns - SHARE THIS!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Looking for a surefire way to keep yourself from sounding like an idiot when you write or talk about guns? 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