I never really know whether to post about press material that appears or not, as I don’t want to add bad publicity as it never really serves anyone. That said a recent news story run by RTE News in mainland Ireland is typical of style of news reporting we see today in the popular media and on TV and because of this I thought I’d add a few comments.
The news story was about a haul of illegal equipment that was siezed in an organised Police crack down (see: original news report). Included in the items siezed were the usual drugs, swords, real firearms and radio scanners.. but wait a moment, isn’t that an Airsoft gun? At one point the RTE reporter holds up an plastic toy that we all know, slaps the mag in for effect and says “It may only be a replica but it’s clear evidence of the extent of the firearms trade on the internet in this country. This is an M16 assault rifle (a replica of one), but yet it can fire thousands of steel balls and hard plastic balls in full automatic mode and it is illegal in this country under the Firearms Act.” (see: news video in RealMedia format) – Click ReadMore to see the rest of the article.
