Friday, May 14, 2010

Charlotte 3rd-Grader Fires Gun in School

Fox News reports on the third-grade gun incident which took place in Charlotte NC.

Fox Charlotte reports that a gun went off inside the desk of a third grader in Charlotte, N.C.

It is unclear how the gun went off, but luckily, the bullet missed all 20 students in the classroom and only hit a wall.

Parents rushed to the school not knowing the extent of the situation after they were told, “A serious incident occurred in a University Meadows classroom this afternoon.”

The gun was a .22-caliber handgun "small enough to fit in the palm of your hand," said Sgt. David Schwob.

Police are investigating the boy's father who came to the school in the afternoon. Schwob said investigators were interviewing the boy, his parents and other students in the class.


I'm all for investigating the dad, but maybe we should just lighten up on this one. The whole family may have been celebrating the start of the NRA Convention. Like father like son, what better way to celebrate than firing off a good round or two, yeehah!

One serious observation, if I may. The Fox News reporting "that a gun went off inside the desk," is supposed to mean what exactly? Since this is Fox, it couldn't be another case of the liberal press demonstrating its ignorance. So, it must be a deliberate attempt to downplay the situation in favor of the gun owners and those responsible. What's ironic about this strategy is gun control folks are often accused of fearing the inanimate object and of anthropomorphizing that object. But here when it serves their purpose, the pro-gun folks do the same thing.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

4 comments:

  1. MikeB: “So, it must be a deliberate attempt to downplay the situation in favor of the gun owners and those responsible.”

    I thought we’ve been through this already. Remember, the point about the media not decrying culpability when reporting on an incident?

    MikeB: “What's ironic about this strategy is gun control folks are often accused of fearing the inanimate object and of anthropomorphizing that object. But here when it serves their purpose, the pro-gun folks do the same thing.”

    If the reporter was downplaying it as you suggested they wouldn’t say this:

    "but luckily, the bullet missed all 20 students in the classroom and only hit a wall."

    Reality is you’d have to be “unlucky” to be shot in this scenario. Bullets accidently discharged are much more likely to find a wall than a person. But that’s nitpicky and I am not trying to downplay the seriousness of this incident myself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "One serious observation, if I may. The Fox News reporting "that a gun went off inside the desk," is supposed to mean what exactly?"

    It means that the gun went off inside the desk. They didn't claim that it went off by itself, they are reporting all that they know about the incident. Who what when and how it went off are unknown at the writing of the report but the fact remained that it "went off".

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't think you understand how "affiliate stations" work. Fox Charlotte != Fox News network.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Caleb, You may be right about my not understanding how affiliates work. But, are you saying there are some FOX affiliates that are liberal-leaning?

    ReplyDelete