Sunday, December 1, 2013

A Guide for Reporters: How to Write About Unintentional Child Shootings

A 10-year-old Northern Michigan boy has died in what local media sources are dubbing an “accidental shooting.” Though details at this point are scarce, bothUpNorthLive.com and 9and10News.com report that Presque Isle County deputy sheriffs responded to reports of an accidental firearm discharge Tuesday night and found the 10-year-old boy dead of a gunshot wound. As of now, we do not know who owned the gun that killed the boy, whose hand was on the trigger when the gun discharged, how the boy came in contact with the gun, or any other details that might help us learn whether this tragedy was truly an accident.
These are all things that would be good to know, and it’s information that local reporters are in a position to get. Before stories like these make national news, they first have to be reported by local and regional news sources. These stories can be hard to cover, and might not initially look like stories at all, especially given that local cops tend to characterize these sorts of shootings as tragic mistakes that don’t warrant criminal charges.
For those of you who haven’t followed my reporting on this topic, I believe that most accidental child shooting deaths in this country are not accidents at all, but the devastating consequence of a lax approach to gun safety on the part of parents or guardians. The closer you look at stories of this type, the more similarities you find between them—the guns in question are typically left out in the open, rather than in a gun safe; the parents or guardians often overestimate their kids’ expertise with firearms—and the more preventable they appear. Reporters can help raise awareness on this topic by giving these stories more attention than they might initially seem to deserve. Here are a few guidelines on the questions to ask to make this reporting more fruitful.

22 comments:

  1. Peters isn't writing journalism here. He's an advocate, and his agenda is clear.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nonsense, Greg. The calling for more accurate reporting, even though it detracts from the NRA talking points that you rely on so much, is not a clear agenda.

      Delete
    2. The obvious point of his piece is that reporters should make guns look as bad as possible. He's welcome to that opinion, but it is his opinion, not objective reporting.

      Delete
    3. Right, 33,000 gun shot deaths a year and the reporter is wrong suggesting we have a dangerous problem. Do you have a brain?

      Delete
    4. Some 20,000 gun deaths are suicides--death by choice. Gun laws would only change the method, not the number of those.

      Accidental firearms deaths amount to around 600 per annum. That number is at a decades-long low. Gun laws couldn't do much to change that.

      Homicide is also at a decades-long low, at the same time as gun laws are loosening.

      The fact is that gun control is not the answer.

      Delete
    5. So your own numbers show a big problem, which a criminal like you says is nothing. We understand you care nothing for even one life, you say so all the time. Now on to serious people who want to stop deaths, not just accept death.

      Delete
    6. Greg, that's bullshit. Compare your take on this to that of the ss. He has enough integrity and security in himself enough to tell the truth. You should learn something from him. You're blind allegiance to the cause makes it a drag to argue with you.

      Delete
    7. I'm both flattered and shocked by your comment Mike, particularly since I think it was just yesterday you were commenting on how I was so full of shit. I'm assuming this is just situational flattery, applicable to just this instance?

      Delete
    8. Mikeb, what in my comment isn't the truth? My conclusions are just that, conclusions, but the rest were statements of fact.

      Delete
    9. "Some 20,000 gun deaths are suicides--death by choice. Gun laws would only change the method, not the number of those."

      Greg, you are infuriatingly stubborn on this. Most of those yearly suicides are people suffering from TEMPORARY mental illness. If they didn't use the most successful means to kill themselves many of them would live to recover from their depression. This has been proven in clinical studies which, of course, you ignore so you can continue to disseminate one of your favorite lies.

      Delete
    10. ss, the "full of shit" remark was a situation one too. As I remember it, I said something like "sometimes you are full of shit."

      But, the truth is, you qualify more often for the integrity and honesty labels than the full-of-shit one.

      Delete
    11. Mikeb, another common method of suicide is hanging. That too is something that people don't tend to survive. But unlike you, I respect individual choices, even when I strongly disagree with them. I also insist on individual responsibility for choices. It's not the government's job to hold our hands through life.

      Delete
    12. Right, lets not look into causes, or prevention, lets argue about modes. Greg, you are a pathetic person who cares nothing about an individual life.

      Delete
    13. Greg, you're not only a proven serial liar, you're a brazen hypocrite too. You often care nothing for personal responsibility when a gun owner is at fault.

      Delete
    14. Mikeb, no one has shown me to be a liar, and I hold gun owners to be responsible. But I don't view all actions in the same manner that you do. For example, a gun owner is not responsible for the actions of a thief who steals a gun.

      Delete
    15. Greg, this is an example of the way you lie. I never said "a gun owner is responsible for the actions of a thief who steals a gun." I've always separated the actions of the thief from the irresponsible failure to practice safe storage on the part of the gun owner. You know this because we've been over it countless times. Yet, in this very comment in which you have the gall to complain about being labelled a liar, you mischaracterize my position like that.

      Delete
    16. Mike has proven you a liar over and over again, buy you are still here.

      Delete
    17. Mikeb, your positions are illogical and sloppy. It's hard to figure out what you mean, other than a general hatred for gun owners.

      Delete
    18. Great comeback, Greg. I'll bet even your supporters are laughing at that one.

      Delete
  2. I agree that those can be good questions to ask when interviewing someone in regards to accidental shootings, because I also agree that many times accidental is another word for negligence.
    However, a journalist is supposed to also report accurately without inserting his opinions unless its an opinion piece, like say....this one

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Obviously this is an opinion piece, the opinion being that reporters need to be more accurate. Why'd you even say that?

      Delete
  3. He reports true facts. Unlike you and the NRA.

    ReplyDelete