Bad Gun Reporting From Fox News

Here’s one of those articles where the headline implies a lot more than the facts of the story: “Chicago’s violent gangs looting freight cars filled with guns.”

Did you hear that? Freight cars filled with guns!

The actual statistics are considerably less dramatic: “The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said that since 2013, more than 150 firearms have been reported stolen from freight trains.” That’s not freight cars filled with guns, that’s a little over one gun stole from trains every ten days nationwide.

Read deeper and it turns out that Chicago gangs hit one big score of 100 Rugers in 2015. Which means that discounting that, just over one gun a month is being stolen from trains.

The entire article looks like the writer tried to tart up a very prosaic story with a sensationalist slant and a bucket of pulp fiction adjectives: “brazen,” “shiny, new guns” (so they were nickle plated?), “ransacking,” “blood-soaked streets” (“Honey, better get out the squeegee! The streets are blood-soaked again today!”), etc.

And then there’s this sentence describing the Ruger score: “In one instance, thieves stole more than 100 new Ruger handguns described as ‘pretty’ in comparison to the shoddy, makeshift guns criminals in Chicago’s rough streets often use.”

Shoddy? Fine. There are plenty of pot metal guns the firearms community regards as shoddy (Lorcin comes to mind). But “makeshift?” Does the author think significant numbers of Chicago gangbangers are using zip guns? Or 3D printed guns?

Chicago has very real crime problems it’s antiquated gun control laws are doing nothing to address. Outside the 2015 Ruger theft, there’s nothing in the piece to suggest that guns stolen from freight trains are a significant part of it.

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2 Responses to “Bad Gun Reporting From Fox News”

  1. Hanzo says:

    Also the Ruger’s are all revolvers. I can imagine the horror if they had been evil semiautomatic pistols.

  2. Ricky Collins, abused child says:

    The author doesth protest too much. The reporting was clear and accurate.

    100 guns aren’t much? Give 100 guns that aren’t Saturday night specials to gang bangers and you’ll see a real crime wave.

    Tkae a chill pill skippy.

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