Wednesday, September 19, 2012

A Detroit DGU With An Ambiguous Headline

Another instance, in this case rather dramatic, of a Concealed Pistol Licensee defending themselves from attack occurred last night in Detroit.

However the Detroit Free Press headline reads: Police: Detroit man shot back at would-be robbers, killed teen , which gives quite a different impression than the facts.

The headline is quite ambiguous and makes it sound like the man shot at the robbers and ended up killing a teen instead now doesn't it?

The facts as related in the article tell the tale:

A 17-year-old youth was fatally shot Saturday night when he and three other youths began shooting at a 50-year-old man sitting in his car at a Detroit shopping center and the man fired back, police said.

The 50-year-old, who had a permit to possess a handgun, fired at the youths as they approached to rob him, Detroit Police Sgt. Alan Quinn said.

More details of the incident are reported in the article.

So the facts as known at the time the headline was written show that the teen was one of the robbers shooting at the CPL carrier who was seated in his vehicle. From the reported facts, it seems to be unambiguously a good defensive firearm use and pretty crystal clear act of self-defense.

The headline should not have been written in such a potentially misleading manner. Obviously the Freep is still not comfortable with the idea of Michigan citizens defending themselves when being shot at by criminals.

Update (9/25): It looks like The Freep agrees the headline was misleading. it now reads: 17-year-old dies after shooting at 50-year-old man.

1 comment:

Scott said...

And...they speak of a "permit to possess a handgun" which is also factually inaccurate. You don't need a permit to possess a handgun, you need a permit to purchase one, or a permit to carry one in a concealed manner.

Unless, of course, they are referring to the Constitution, which recognizes the right given to us by our creator to "keep and bear arms". But it might be too much to expect the freep to actually understand the Constitution.