Washington Post Gets Fingerprints and things Wrong

The Washington Post printed some errors in its reporting on gun law.  So, what else is new?   That was my first reaction.   It has happened so often with the old media, I simply noted it and shrugged.

A couple of hours later, I decided it was worth reporting on, so I went back to the original article, and they had been corrected!   This shows that the power of the new media is growing.   I did not make a snap shot of the original error.  Here is what the post put up as notice of correction:

(CORRECTION: This post has been updated to reflect the following: the fingerprinting requirement was only removed for license renewals, not all licenses; guns are explicitly allowed, with written authorization from the appropriate official, at certain school-related locations, not on the premises.)

The comments on the article quickly noted the errors, which to be fair, were likely simply passed on by the Post from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, which is another old media institution that has been thoroughly smug in its anti-second amendment attitudes.   One of the commenters, reg241, quickly caught one of the errors:

 You are still finger printed when getting a license in Georgia, the new law for no finger printing is for renewing.

TheGunmother challenged them:

 That is not what the article says. Furthermore, some states that do not require fingerprinting have reciprocity with states that do. Automobiles have more stringent record keeping and requirements than CC and you can't drive a car into a bar. So quit comparing the death rate to drunk drivers.

Then darthjasper confirmed that the error had been made:

 To quote the HB 60: "Section 1.7 (c) Fingerprinting. Following completion of the application for a weapons carry license or the renewal of a license, the judge of the probate court shall require the applicant to proceed to an appropriate law enforcement agency in the county or to any vendor approved by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for fingerprint submission services with the completed application."

This may shock you but sometimes reporters are simply wrong.

 It is worth while to read the comments, because the level of ignorance and arrogance on the other side has to be witnessed to be understood.   Yes, most of those who support turning the second amendment into a meaningless asterisk in history books really are that ignorant and arrogant.

It is nice to see the Post correct their error so quickly.   There is evidence that the Post is starting to turn away from their condescending attitude toward gun ownership.

I look forward to more evidence of the same.

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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