“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
-Inigo Montoya
When I hear or read about firearms in the mainstream media I often hear language that is confusing, deceptive or unclear. I’d like to talk about some common phrases and words and what they really mean and what they don’t mean.
open fire
Here’s one that I commonly hear in news reports. My complaint with the term is that it’s vague. It has a sort of cinematic ambiance. When you open things, they tend to stay open until they’re closed. I opened the car door. Ok, now the car door is open. I sat down and closed the door. How often do you hear, ‘the assailant opened fire, then, after a while, closed fire’? The phrase probably makes me think of the movies because it’s a common feature of action films to have characters open fire – start shooting – and then continue for an extended scene. In a news report, I would rather have specific information. ‘The assailant fired three shots’, or ‘the men fired continuously for 20 seconds’. The only harm in the use of this phrase is it can make the firing of a small number of shots sound like a scene from Rambo. While any violence is troubling, this phrase can blur the distinction between a bar fight and a military style terrorist assault.
gunman
Here’s another one that makes me think of the movies. A gunman is that guy in the western who rides into town with his six-shooters shining on his hips. The perpetrator of an assault with a golf club is not a clubman. A hit-and-run driver is not a carman. The police who respond to the incident are not gunmen, even though they have guns. By the way, why aren’t there gunwomen? The use of a gun in a crime does not transform the attacker into some kind of archetype. Words like ‘attacker’, ‘suspect’, ‘perpetrator’, or ‘murderer’ are much more specific.
clip
This is a classic, and a lot of folks have written about it, so I’ll be brief. Most guns these days don’t use a clip. It’s a frequent mistake to use the word ‘clip’ when referring to a magazine. It’s not a big deal, but it’s a flag that the speaker knows very little about firearms. It’s like talking about the player that scored a home run in the football game. Everyone knows what you mean, but you still sound like a moron.
arsenal / stockpile
These are related, so I’ll combine them. The most frequent usage comes in reporting of a search related to a violent crime. “In his apartment, police found an arsenal consisting of…”, “a stockpile of weapons and ammunition was discovered in her car”, “the writer had a small arsenal of pens and pencils on his desk”. Both are terms that suggest that beyond a certain quantity, a collection or group of things becomes something else. ‘Arsenal’ is usually a metaphor. In literal usage, it refers to a quantity of guns stored by an organization or group as well as to the facility for storing them. Using it to describe an individual’s handful of guns elevates them to something bigger. A lot of gun owners possess more than one firearm. It’s hard to say why, just like it’s hard to say why some people own a lot of wristwatches or handbags. Usually they are different types of guns, for different uses, or the person has a special interest in one type or model and collects variants of that gun. If a person hunts, they will likely want a different gun for turkey than for deer. If a person carries concealed, they may have a smaller pistol for dressier occasions when a larger one would be harder to hide. If you have 25 identical rifles to outfit your friends in case of a zombie attack, I’d call that an arsenal. But if you have a handful of various types of guns, it’s just a handful of guns. Specific language is best in journalism.
‘Stockpile’ is probably used accurately more often, but lets talk about why. A stockpile is simply an accumulation of more than your immediate needs to hedge against an unpredictable supply. You might stockpile cans of food in case of a blizzard. The marketplace for ammunition is strange. Prices vary like a commodity and availability varies widely. Since many gun owners live in places where laws prevent them from ordering ammunition by mail, there are often a limited number of places to buy it. If you own a .45 pistol and you want to go to the range, you need .45 ammunition. If you sometimes go to the store and they don’t have it, you’re likely to buy more of it when they do. That’s stockpiling. A trip to the range can mean shooting 50 rounds, 100 or 200 rounds. It’s practice, and it takes time and money to go, so you’re not going to go to the range, fire 5 shots and go home. If you like to go to the range, and you use 100 rounds every time you go, and availability is irregular, it’s pretty reasonable to have 300-500 rounds at home. It doesn’t spoil. Multiply that by three or four different calibers if you own different kinds of guns. Some calibers, like .22lr or .223, are much less expensive in larger quantities. It’s common to see boxes of 500 or 1000. See how a casual, recreational shooter can end up with 2000 rounds of ammunition? Sure, it’s a stockpile, but the way the media tends to use the word, it makes it sound like you’re preparing for something big and bad.