Thank You Huffington Post For Bastardizing The Word ‘Safety’

I came across an article today that really got me thinking about word selection. If you think about it, even the use of a term or sometimes a word in a title can frame the entire subject matter of the story. There are also the rare occurrences when the use of punctuation can achieve the same end but in this instance it is all about the words. Thanks to Matt over at The Bang Switch for bringing the following piece of fine media bias to my attention.

Usually when my eyes scan by an article from the Huffington Post, an Eloi favorite, I just keep moving and focus my attention on actual news. However, the title of this article happened to stop my glance. When I read “Man Accidentally Kills Self With Gun During Demonstration On Gun Safety” I was honestly a bit perplexed. If he was following the Four Rules of Gun Safety as created by Colonel Jeff Cooper this would be an impossibility. So, really, how could he possibly kill himself if he was honestly trying to demonstrate gun safety? The answer, you can’t kill yourself if you are following the simple rules outlined above.

So, what the heck is this ‘reporter’ talking about? Well, here is what the article said:

The 36-year-old, whose name has not been released, was showing his girlfriend how his three handguns are safe when they aren’t loaded, according to the Detroit Free Press. He was attempting to demonstrate the safety of the handguns by holding them to his head and pulling the trigger.

The third gun fired, and the man was struck in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.  

Three children ages 7, 10, and 12 were in the home but did not witness the shooting, according to reports.  The man’s girlfriend told authorities he had been drinking most of the day before the incident took place. 

This isn’t the first time a gun safety demonstration has gone wrong. In January 2013, 18-year-old Florida resident Alexander Xavier Shaw died doing a similar demonstration. Richard M. McLean, a 22-year-old from Michigan, died in a similar fashion in June 2012. Missouri resident James Looney, 40, was also teaching his girlfriend about gun safety when he shot himself in the head in September 2009.

Notice something? That’s right, this really wasn’t a demonstration on gun safety. This was an act of stupidity by someone who was not following the rules that any responsible gun owner follows. We have rules for a reason. Unfortunately, as was unnecessarily cited, similar acts have taken place in the recent past. None of them were demonstrations of ‘gun safety’ as the article would like the reader to believe. Put it this way, this incident is on par with the movie The Deer Hunter when it comes to demonstrating gun safety.

The sad part, beyond the confines of the story itself, is that this article has a purpose unrelated to the acts described. This is a piece motivated by politics and the Eloi agenda. Thankfully he wasn’t doing a demonstration on wood shop safety or we would have to consider legislation to outlaw or, at the very least, heavily regulate the sale and use of power tools. Think about how ridiculous that headline would sound, “Man Accidentally Kills Self With Power Tool During Demonstration On Shop Safety”.

You know you will never read that headline even though I am certain that it has happened before because power tools don’t look scary (unless you paint them black and put on a collapsible stock). But here we are debating a Constitutionally protected right because people are scared by the way something looks, they don’t understand how it works, and they refuse to place the blame on people for their actions. Remember, the gun didn’t load itself, it didn’t jump on the table and point at the guy, and the gun didn’t pull the trigger. This was a tragedy caused by man NOT a collection of polymer and steel.