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| [Ben]: | Clarification | Discuss This [2 comments so far] View Comments | It has come to my attention that some folks who are less than familiar with firearms are confused by why the picture is so funny. Some appear to be concerned with my being flippant about a poor old lady who came close to death.
So, let me explain why I found the story amusing.
After a modern metallic cartridge is fired, a portion of the cartridge (the bullet) is propelled at high velocity down the barrel of the weapon. In a self-loading firearm like the M16 or M4 used by the American military, the rear portion of the cartridge (the case with the primer) are ejected from the firearm before a fresh cartridge is fed into the chamber.
What is striking about the two items held in the Iraqi lady's hand is that they clearly have both the bullet and casing intact. They are unfired. In other words, assuming the journalist was accurately depicting what the lady said, she was blatantly lying when she told them that she was holding two bullets that were fired at her home. Obvious lies are amusing when presented as fact. Doubly so when presented by a news source that ostensibly fact-checks its material. |
| 2007-08-20
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