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You’ll inform me that this isn’t the worst downside in both the media or our societies, and I’ll agree. Though it might be associated to extra severe issues or encourage some inquiry within the economics of language, chances are you’ll think about this publish as a light-weight midsummer piece. Reporting on a homicide thriller, the Wall Road Journal writes, talking of a sheriff’s deputy (“A Hiker Died With a Bullet in His Chest. Why Did Police Say He Was Stabbed by a Stick?” July 12, 2023):
He didn’t see any bullet wounds within the pet, and after looking out the realm for 25 minutes, he couldn’t discover any shell casings.
Because the story headline says, not solely had the pet been shot, however his grasp too. Right here, I’m specializing in the muddled terminology.
The deputy sheriff wouldn’t be searching for “shell casings” besides if he had already seen a wound or wounds typical of a shotgun blast. Solely shotgun shells have “shell casings,” as a result of the entire cartridge is named a “shell.” A pistol or a rifle usually fires a single bullet propelled from the top of a metallic (normally brass) “case” or just “casing” containing the powder; collectively, the bullet and the casing are referred to as “cartridge.” A shotgun shell casing, primarily product of plastic, comprises a lot of pellets on high of the powder. True, there’s the exception of shotgun shells that comprise just one “bullet” generally referred to as “slug.” The opposite exception is revolver shotshells, designed for snakes and unlikely to kill a canine or a person. It will be shocking if the deputy sheriff had sloppily spoken of “shell casings” whereas he was searching for all kinds of casings.
If the deputy sheriff actually mentioned he was searching for “shell casings,” it could counsel that he was not precisely on high of his job, as his failure to determine a bullet wound on the lifeless hiker would verify. By definition, in fact, homicide mysteries elevate many questions.
This being mentioned, the reporter might not be allowed to go scot-free. Ignorance of firearm fundamentals (it’s not rocket science) appears to be systemic within the media and, alas, not solely in European or Canadian media—the place we shouldn’t be overly shocked to seek out that they will’t distinguish a rifle from a broomstick. I suppose that extraordinary people, versus state brokers or their struggle conscripts, mustn’t learn about this stuff. In a earlier EconLog publish on a associated subject, I wrote:
Maybe it needs to be a situation of the job, even in America sadly, that journalists and their editors personal and shoot weapons.
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