In the same time frame, local channel 4 reporter Bill Proctor, reporting on a Detroit shooting, said "Police are searching for a Smith and Wesson .357 Glock pistol"
Another drive by shooting where the witness, an old black lady, said "it sounded like an AK-47" like she knows what an AK sounds like.......
And the lies have been going on for over 25 years...........
As a side note, several evenings ago a local talk show host made the claim that automatic weapons are illegal to own. I was fortunate enough to get thru to him and correct him on air and inform him on the hoops that had to be jumped thru in order to get one and how much a typical M-16 might cost.........
The media is usually confused about firearms because they don’t understand them or know anything about them. Many regular citizens who are sometimes witnesses to shootings are just as confused. The victim who was shot in the legs inside the club referred to hearing shots in the club as “shotgun blasts.” It probably would not be appropriate to make fun of him for not knowing the difference - in his mind that is how he categorized it.
My wife knows nothing about football. She has tried to learn a bit because I enjoy watching it, but posters on an ESPN story where she was interviewed would probably have a field day with the mistakes.
Same thing with magazines and clips. The beat goes on. This is not the argument to hang the hat on. It is probably fair for the layperson to categorize the Sig rifle as being an AR type rifle or in the AR family. Based on the commonalities it would be classified there if it were an animal (kingdom, family... all the way to genus, species).
This “debate” will never be won with semantics. The debate will come down to the middle of the classification process - i.e. - military caliber or high velocity, high-capacity, semi-automatic rifles. The argument will never be won on the semantics of “gas impingement vs. piston”. That is just as ridiculous as the “assault weapon features” list for the 1994 AWB or making fun of the victim who described gunshots as “shotgun blast” or someone who had a semi-automatic pistol pointed at them describing it as “having a clip.”