Where this reporter screwed up? The following story was published by the Mobile(AL) Register. These are only the first two paragraphs of the story. I realise most of us will be able to pick it out in a matter of seconds, but were shooters so we know, but the majority of the non-shooting public will not know where the screw up was. All the guy had to do was get a dictionary and he would have known.....


05/05/03

By JOE DANBORN
Staff Reporter


A pair of New York City police undercover detectives were shot dead in March while trying to buy a submachine gun from firearms traffickers, prompting fellow officers to solemnly call such stings the most dangerous job in law enforcement.

Authorities have yet to reveal the origins of the Tec-9 semiautomatic pistol that the officers were trying to buy for $1,200 cash. Nor have they said how or where a 16-year-old already convicted in the case got his hands on the .44-caliber handgun he provided to the 20-year-old accused of pulling the trigger.

A semi-automatic submachine gun...

Damn that was quick. I always look for stuff like this when i read newspaper stories, when i was on the staff of the student newspaper in college all the stories were read by three editors before they were put into print, when it came to the police/crime reporters they got a fourth read by me as i was putting them on the pages, more than once I'd get chewed out by my EIC for calling in reporters and telling them that they screwed up when describing the guns or how they work, or what cal it was. If it wasn't accurate I wouldn't let it through.(the EIC was a total sheeple)

and a tec 9 in .44 caliber!!

Yah he didn't do to good of a job in noting the differance between the gun being bought and the gun used in the killings, all around i think it was a poorly writen story, well not all around. With the exception of the third paragraph were the guy does mention that the chances of the gun being bought legaly are slim because of the strict laws. i was suprised he would mention criminals not getting guns legally.

Any un registered gun in that city is illegal, anyone who has a gun in that city without a permit(which i've heard is harder to get than osama) is breaking the law.

One of the first stories i read about the incident had a quote in it from a detective(who wished not to be named) that they thought that same thing.

Sounds to me like everyone involved in the case, from the cops to the reporter were a bit less than competent.