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Associated Press Advises Journalists to Quit Using ‘Highly Politicized Terms’ Like ‘Assault Weapon’
Breitbart ^ | 14 Jul 2022 | AWR HAWKINS

Posted on 07/14/2022 2:03:46 PM PDT by conservative98

The Associated Press announced an update to its stylebook Wednesday, advising journalists to quit using phrases like “assault rifle” or “assault weapon.”

The AP tweeted the update, noting, “The preferred term for a rifle that fires one bullet each time the trigger is pulled, and automatically reloads for a subsequent shot, is a semi-automatic rifle. An automatic rifle continuously fires rounds if the trigger is depressed and until its ammunition is exhausted.”

The update continues: “Avoid assault rifle and assault weapon, which are highly politicized terms that generally refer to AR- or AK-style rifles designed for the civilian market, but convey very little meaning about the actual function of the weapon.”

The Second Amendment Foundation’s Alan Gottlieb responded to the AP’s focus on changing terminology on semiautomatic rifles, saying, “It’s about time the media realized the terms ‘assault rifle’ and ‘assault weapon’ are inflammatory and meaningless. Those terms have become part of the gun prohibition lobby’s lexicon, and unfortunately, journalists across the country have been all-too-willing to adopt their vocabulary and repeatedly use it in their reports.

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2ndamendment; alangottlieb; ap; assaultrifle; assaultweapon; associatedpress; banglist; fakenews; marchingorders; mediabias; nra; secondamendment
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To: Right Wing Vegan

200 years ago, a “gun” was a smoothbore (like a shotgun), a “rifle” was a long barreled shoulder arm, and a handgun was a “pistol.” Terms have changed. Even during the Old West period from 1866 to 1890, most called their revolvers “pistols.”


41 posted on 07/14/2022 3:07:37 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono
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To: conservative98
...journalists across the country have been all-too-willing to adopt their vocabulary and repeatedly use it in their reports.

They're ignorant and they choose to remain so.

42 posted on 07/14/2022 3:17:28 PM PDT by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: conservative98

I REALLY wonder what prompted this change.


43 posted on 07/14/2022 3:19:59 PM PDT by jonascord (First rule of the Dunning-Kruger Club is that you do not know you are in the Dunning-Kruger club.)
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To: antidemoncrat
I’m still betting when the Democrats really come after guns their definition of an assault weapon will be any semi-automatic weapon.

You should see this bill by Rep. Cicilline, David N. [D-RI-1] (Introduced 03/11/2021)

H.R.1808 - Assault Weapons Ban of 2021117th Congress (2021-2022)

It's not "any" or all, but just scroll down for what he does want to ban and how numerous they are.

44 posted on 07/14/2022 3:28:39 PM PDT by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: AFreeBird

They’d have gotten the others banned, regardless. Pretty much any semi-auto is more powerful than the AR-15 in .223. Going after “rifles” broadens the number of people affected, and loses them support.


45 posted on 07/14/2022 3:28:57 PM PDT by gundog ( It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: dfwgator

46 posted on 07/14/2022 4:02:19 PM PDT by DCBryan1 (Delete FB, TWTR, GOOGL, AMZN, YHOO, Gmail/chrome. Use Gab, Brave + DDG, VPN, Freerepublic )
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To: Captain Jack Aubrey

From what I can tell, an Insurrection is five or more senior citizens taking selfies.


47 posted on 07/14/2022 4:04:48 PM PDT by AlbertWang
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To: conservative98

No, we are not.


48 posted on 07/14/2022 4:07:29 PM PDT by Hildy
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To: bunkerhill7

Gabba Gabba Hey!


49 posted on 07/14/2022 4:36:22 PM PDT by redshawk ( I want my red balloon. https://youtu.be/VexKSRKoWQY)
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To: Inyo-Mono

Thanks. I think what I was focused on there was the media’s motive.


50 posted on 07/14/2022 4:39:58 PM PDT by Right Wing Vegan (Pot legalization licenses every degenerate pothead piece of trash to force drug neighbors.)
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To: All

I don’t know if this is a good thing. I took this change to mean they are now starting the push to ban all semi-automatic weapons and no longer bothering to go incrementally starting with the scary black rifles.


51 posted on 07/14/2022 4:51:42 PM PDT by philled (If this creature is not stopped it could make its way to Novosibirsk! )
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To: conservative98

They’ll still use made up terms like “assault weapons” and they will still constantly lie about things that simply do not exist like “the gun show loophole”. They’ll continue to call a civilian rifle like the AR-15 a “military rifle” or another made up term, a “weapon of war” despite the fact that it has literally never been a military rifle

They will continue to lie. Lying is just what they do.


52 posted on 07/14/2022 5:03:40 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: conservative98

Brilliant idea! That covers nearly every firearm in existence except shotguns, revolvers, and muzzle loaders! Now they can lie about nearly every firearm, not just the scary looking ones. Give that person a raise. Hell, make them president! </obvious sarc>


53 posted on 07/14/2022 5:16:26 PM PDT by Skid289
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To: Right Wing Vegan
Thanks. I think what I was focused on there was the media’s motive.

Yes, you were, I was just adding a historical perspective for the heck of it.

54 posted on 07/14/2022 5:37:15 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono
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To: conservative98

Probably an attempt at educating lobbyists so they know to refer to ‘semi-auto rifles’ when they write gun control legislation for the pols.

Freegards


55 posted on 07/14/2022 5:42:34 PM PDT by Ransomed
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To: Right Wing Vegan

Bingo.


56 posted on 07/14/2022 5:43:59 PM PDT by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: AFreeBird

“Not necessarily. This reset of the verbiage will broaden the scope of what they want to ban. If so-called “assault rifles” are also semi-auto, let’s just ban the whole damn class not just as all subset of it.

Don’t think this is a win. It isn’t. It takes time to reprogram the sheep. You will now hear semiautomatic more and more on every news report.”

This the correct take on it, in my opinion.

Freegards


57 posted on 07/14/2022 5:44:13 PM PDT by Ransomed
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To: conservative98

***The Associated Press announced an update to its stylebook Wednesday, advising journalists to quit using phrases like “assault rifle”***

I hope my local news media (which I have not watched in years) takes a lesson from this.
In the past there was a crime, and the news chick went ballistic about the weapon being “AN ASSAULT RIFLE!” blah blah blah ASSAULT RIFLE! blah blah blah, AN A-S-S-AULT RIFLE!”
Finally they showed a photo of the “A-S-S-AULT RIFLE!”

It was a WWII era M1-carbine, something you could order through the mails from 1946 to 1968. The government dumped something like 250,000 of them on the market back then, and mass killings DID NOT take off.


58 posted on 07/14/2022 5:48:31 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (“Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.” – Aristotl)
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To: conservative98

I’d bet the change is NOT because “assault rifle” is inflammatory, but because they Left plans to demonize every “semi-automatic rifle”.


59 posted on 07/14/2022 6:06:05 PM PDT by Chewbarkah
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To: conservative98

Well, most in the press dutifully follow the AP about capitalizing “black”. Let’s see how they do here. I’m not holding my breath.


60 posted on 07/14/2022 6:47:54 PM PDT by libertylover (Democrats are as determined to kill innocent people as the Nazis.)
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