To be fair, this is not a quote from Chief Deputy Hondo, but a paraphrase in the words of the reporter, Darrell Todd Maurina. (Why am I thinking Darrell is a girl?)
Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer [For news tips or content-related
inquiries]
Voice: (616) 674-8446 * FAX: (616) 674-8454 * E-Mail: Darrell128@AOL.com
PO Box 691, Lawrence, MI 49064-0691
You wrote this:
Posted: “Hey, Darrell, it is a machine gun not an assault rifle. Your agenda is showing.”
Posted: “To be fair, this is not a quote from Chief Deputy Hondo, but a paraphrase in the words of the reporter, Darrell Todd Maurina. (Why am I thinking Darrell is a girl?)”
Posted: “Why isn't there one newspaper / tv reporter in the nation that knows anything at all about firearms? Idiots all!!!”
Guys... lay off a little! For some reason nobody in our entire newsroom, which includes a number of Vietnam-era vets, caught this egregious error but we took all kinds of grief once the paper hit the streets, and now apparently via the Internet.
I'm a reporter right outside a major Army installation in a community full of Vietnam vets, some of whom used the M-60, and before that was a reporter outside Cannon Air Force Base, and before that was a civilian working in Army Public Affairs. My dad was a sergeant in the pre-Vietnam, post-Korea era, and my mother was the gun aficionado in my family who could embarrass most guys with her marksmanship. (Part of why I never got interested in guns or hunting was my mother was too good.)
Obviously I blew it about the capabilities of an M-60, but I am far from a left-wing radical, and neither is our newspaper. Not all of us in the media are liberals, and I've got no beef with the 2nd Amendment. Anyone who wants to use the courts to pervert the 2nd Amendment to take away your guns is just as likely to pervert the 1st Amendment to take away my right to a free press.
So yell at us all you want about our error on the M-60's capabilities. That's legitimate... I blew it, and deserve to be yelled at. But don't assume I'm a liberal with an agenda to overturn the 2nd Amendment... I'm absolutely not.
Regards,
Darrell Todd Maurina
Waynesville Daily Guide