'The' Gun Thread (Page 10)

So now the gun misinformation has invaded mindless TV shows.  My wife and I were watching "Elementary" the other night.  Usually a pretty good show but one scene had me pause the TV and go into a tirade for a few mins. (The wife has learned to just smile and nod)

In one scene a car is riddled with bullets from an very obviously sounding fully automatic weapon.

The detective then says sit was a "semi-automatic MP5".  He then goes on to talk about how it fired in 3 round bursts.

Really? Either the writers are complete idiots or they are trying to intentionally further confuse the semi-auto vs auto debate.

Yeah, same foley artist that uses a pump action racking noise when it's a double barrel shotgun.  It's recognizable, so they use it.

I also chuckle every time I hear the Wilhelm Scream now.  It's the most widely used specific sound effect in movies (so I have heard).

Yes, or the infinite magazine capacity.  Auto pistols that can fire for minutes at a time with no sign of extended mag.

It wasn't even bursts.  It was just full auto fire. Obviously not a semi-auto. Not a 3 round burst.

Conspiracy, no?  Subtlety placed opinion by anti-gun writers?  Maybe... (TV shows routinely hire ex-police and military to at least advise the writer.  This show obviously does not.)

I'm glad I'm not the only who counts rounds used in TV and movies.

Right, because most Hollywood writers are pro-gun GOP members...

Fine, they are incompetent.  So much so that everyone involved in the show didn't catch the glaring error?

- The simplest explanation for some phenomenon is more likely to be accurate than more complicated explanations - William of Occam (though I suppose that could be argued in both ways)

---

I'll let that one go.  Can we move to a second, more clear cut, example?  On NBC news tonight they described the UCF (near) shooter as having an "assault weapon".  The sheriff's statement said it was a .22 rifle.

Yep, no one would ever misuse gun terminology to sway opinion.

jmk-brooklyn - 2013-03-18 9:24 PM Here's the thing: believe it or not, most people who saw that, even those who spotted the mistake, didn't really get that bent out of shape about it. They certainly didn't go on a 20-minute rant about it. It's a tv show, not a documentary. Ps, you should stay away from the movie "Commando". Your head might explode.

I get the point that triRsquared was making.......but that broke me up.  LOL

I think that the news media misuses all sorts of terms related to all sorts of issues for one main reason... to get eyeballs on their story. Like with this whole controversy of how CNN covered this Steubenville rape trial, focusing on the "promising futures" of the victims. I don't believe that they are rape apologists or are trying to sway people; I think they're trying to get ratings. Same with misusing gun terminology.

Implying that there is some sort of media conspiracy is the sort of thing that gives the NRA and its ilk the image of the paranoid gun nut. Speaking of, this past Sunday, about a mile from my home, a kid who coming home from a night of drinking stumbled into the wrong house in the middle of the night. His home was two doors down. The homeowner shot and killed the boy. Shoot first, ask questions later, I guess. Dark + alcohol + wrong house + gun = dead kid. Sad all around.

I'll refer you to the Occam's Razor reference earlier in the thread.

I'll even grant you that different news organizations, for example FOX News, tailor word choice in their stories to their audience. But at the end of the day, it's much more about ratings than it is some random copy editor trying to influence politics.