ex-ATF agent and responsible journalism

[Iain]

Was just doing some nosing around on the internet and returned this page intended for journalists writing on gun crime. Read it, but my ignorance is a factor in judging it, just thought you guys might like to read it. To me it seems reasonably good on trying to educate journalists, not necessarily on genuine 2A freedoms.

note - don't mean to start any calibre wars based on some of the comments he makes, that bit was annoyed me a little, but seems the worst bit.

---------------------

Gun violence, guns, and gun control are very volatile issues and supercharged with emotion. We have an obligation to report accurately on these subjects.

About the writer:

Richard C. Rhodes is a former Marine, ATF (then A&TTD) agent, CIA agent, and a law graduate. As a civilian, he worked for years with the Dallas police and others on crime prevention programs.

During his tenure as a U.S. Treasury agent, he was for several years a specialist on the enforcement of the Federal firearms laws (while stationed in Philadelphia). For over 20 years he has been writing on crime-related subjects.

(rest of the article - http://www.neto.com/rcr/mediagun.html)

-------------------

Feel free to rip it to pieces for my education.

 

[NewShooter78]

They should teach this in journalism classes. Decent article.

I love this line.

Think about this the next time you start to write a sentence that contains the phrase "the weapon of choice is ... ." Old Joe Thug might just say to himself, "Geez, I better get me one of them babies."

 

[Stand_Watie]

I think that is a nice basic overview for someone unfamiliar with firearms. A shame that so few journalists will use it.

 

[erikm]

SOP?

I've added the link to my link list. The article is a well thought-out primer. If ever I have to reply to a journalist about guns etc, I'll almost certainly include the link and parts of the article.

Including this link or article IMO might also be a good SOP for anyone here commenting to journalists on firearms articles. Maybe with a sufficiently large number of repeats they'll get a clue.

An article for the archives?

Cheers,
ErikM