In the category of image over substance, Seattle’s KIRO 7 appears to have turned a felon-in-possession arrest into yet another misleading anti-gun scare story.
On March 20, KIRO 7 ran the headline: “Military machine gun found on public bus rider during KCSO increased patrols.” In the story, the station reported that King County Sheriff’s Office deputies encountered a man smoking marijuana on a bus, removed him from the bus, and during a pat-down found “a gun — an Uzi with a silencer” concealed under his shirt and tucked down his pants. KIRO then told readers, “An Uzi is a military-grade machine gun that is generally illegal to own in the United States.”
That is a dramatic claim. It is also one that appears not to match the gun KIRO showed its audience.
By the very next day, KIRO’s own follow-up reporting described the seized firearm differently. Instead of repeating the “military machine gun” line, the station referred to it as “a reproduction .22 caliber Uzi-style machine gun with a fake suppressor.” That wording is still sloppy, because a semi-automatic .22 replica is not a machine gun. But it strongly suggests the original story exaggerated what deputies had actually recovered.
That distinction is not a technicality. If the firearm shown was in fact a .22-caliber UZI-style replica, labeling it a “military machine gun” was not just imprecise wording. It gave viewers a false impression about what the suspect actually possessed.
Product listings make the likely explanation even more obvious. Walther has marketed a semi-automatic UZI .22 LR tactical rimfire replica, describing it as a UZI rimfire replica and explicitly identifying it as a semi-auto .22 LR rifle, not a select-fire submachine gun.
That appears consistent with what KIRO eventually reported: a “reproduction .22 caliber Uzi-style” firearm with a “fake suppressor.”
KIRO correctly reported that the man was a convicted felon, which would make his possession of any firearm unlawful regardless of whether the gun was a real machine gun or a semi-auto .22 clone. That was already a valid story. The real offense was serious enough on its own. There was no need to inflate it into a “military machine gun” narrative if the object shown was actually a rimfire replica.
Unfortunately, this kind of framing has a long history. In its well-known paper on “assault weapons,” Violence Policy Center openly argued that public confusion between machine guns and semi-automatic firearms could be politically useful, writing that “anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun.” That line has aged better than the media outlets that keep proving him right.
If King County deputies recovered a firearm from a prohibited person, report that. If the gun was a .22-caliber UZI-style replica with a fake suppressor, report that too. But telling the public a “military machine gun” was found on a bus rider, then quietly shifting to “reproduction .22 caliber Uzi-style” language later, is bad reporting and exactly why people have shifted away from mainstream media sources.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
Part of the Problem lies in the fact, that even when the media knows they are wrong.
They still have no concept of how wrong they are, or why it matters.
I worked at a newpaper nearly 37 years. (Inserting ads, not dumb reporter) Several times it was reported, “Suspect used a semi-automatice revolver to hold up the stop n rob.” I would go up and ask. So they had a webley-fosbery? I would be told, “What does it matter?” I’d say if you can’t get this right, how do I know that you get anything right??
Lying liars with an agenda LYING. How shocking, who would have ever expected that?
The so-called media doesn’t know jack.
When this story first appeared, it grabbed my attention. I used to work for King County. I recall the headline- “Military machine gun found on public bus rider during KCSO increased patrols.” followed by “An Uzi is a military-grade machine gun that is generally illegal to own in the United States.” The Uzi in the photos looked odd to me. By enlarging the photo, I could clearly see the .”22LR” stamp on the left side of the receiver, under the rear sight. Clearly, it was a Walther built Uzi replica, made under license, chambered in .22LR. It is indeed an… Read more »
In the story, the station reported that King County Sheriff’s Office deputies encountered a man smoking marijuana on a bus, First problem of the story next correctly reported that the man was a convicted felon. Second problem which would make his possession of any firearm unlawful . Instead of repeating the “military machine gun” line, the station referred to it as “a reproduction .22 caliber Uzi-style machine gun with a fake suppressor.” Problem # Three I see a picture of a firearm still not confirmed what that is or if it is even real. A “reproduction .22 caliber Uzi-style” firearm with a… Read more »
William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer did not begin the custom of newspapers lying like hell, but they industrialized it. And the internet is just as bad.
Come on Dean, let’s take a breath and be real for a change…
There is less than a 1% chance that KIRO misidentified the gun, and a near certainty that KIRO reported the gun exactly as SCSO told them it was.
Grossly inflated misinformation about police seizures is a common practice across law enforcement in the US.
BREAKING NEWS!!!!! MAJOR REVELATION!!!! YAWN…MSM….lies, liars, and damned lies…..or something like that.