Gun Ignorance or Alarmism? You Decide

The average journalist is not an expert on pretty much anything they report on. While some who cover film have a background studying the subject, and some science journalists do have a background in science, most reporters don’t actually understand any of the subject matter they’re reporting on. In theory, they don’t need to because they’re not supposed to include anything that’s not covered by their sources.

Unfortunately, that ignorance can cause problems. Gell-Mann Amnesia describes a phenomenon when someone who is familiar with a topic sees the mistakes, then accepts the rest of the topics covered in a paper at face value. They don’t know the subject, so they’re relying on the reporter to ask the right question.

I bring all of this up because of a gun found by TSA at Pittsburgh International Airport. It starts with the headline that says, “Sewickley man brings gun, 30 bullets to Pittsburgh International Airport checkpoint, TSA says.”

SA officers at Pittsburgh International Airport stopped a gun and dozens of bullets from getting past a security checkpoint at the Pittsburgh International Airport on Wednesday.

The officers say the Sewickley man claimed to have forgotten he had the .22 caliber handgun and 30 bullets with him as he went through the checkpoint.

“Forgetting that you have a gun with you is not a mistake that you want to make,” said Gerardo Spero, TSA’s federal security director for Pennsylvania and Delaware. “For starters, knowing where your gun is at all times is a vital part of being a responsible gun owner. Telling us you forgot that you had it is inexcusable. Travelers are responsible for the contents of their carry-on bags. This individual now faces a stiff financial civil penalty.”

Now, at first glance, some of you are probably thinking that this was maybe a gun and a spare magazine. Then again, with it being a .22, could it be something else?

Well, yeah.

See, the gun in the photo provided at the original link is a Keltec PMR30, which is a .22 with a 30 round capacity.

In other words, it’s a gun with a full magazine.

So why make a big deal out of it? Is this a case of ignorance? Or is the TSA and/or the reporter trying to scare people?

Part of me wants to believe this is intentional, but I’ve seen too many cases of outright ignorance regarding guns for me to be able to just jump to that conclusion with any degree of confidence. I still remember Joy Behar completely losing her mind because it turned out the first would-be Trump assassin had a whole 50 rounds of ammunition!

Yeah, we know that sounds like a whole box, maybe two or three, of ammunition.

So to the reporter, this might sound super relevant, like they uncovered someone who had a small arsenal in their bag. They didn’t, but they also likely didn’t know any better.

Or, and I can’t rule this out either, TSA told them it was just a loaded handgun, they asked the question of how many rounds, and they decided to engage in a little alarmism to freak people out and, maybe, try to get more gun control passed, either in Pennsylvania or federally.

It really can go either way, and I can’t dismiss both somehow playing a factor.