Since taking over Bearing Arms, I’ve not done a fisking until now. If you aren’t familiar with the term, a fisking is a point-by-point rebuttal of a deceptive news article (the term get’s it name from a British al Qaeda apologist reporter, Robert Fisk).
The object of this fisking is the story of a negligent discharge of a police AR-15 at a school in Chino, California, where two clueless reporters regurgitate the spin provided by police spokesperson as facts.
Three students at a Chino elementary school were injured Wednesday after a student discharged an assault rifle mounted on a police motorcycle that was on display, an official said.
The AR-15 assault rifle was mounted on the motorcycle that was on display during a drug prevention event, said Tamrin Olden, a spokeswoman for the Chino Police Department.
This wasn’t a police vehicle responding to a call, but a motorcycle that the Chino PD planned in advance to be at a school function with hundreds of children around. Somehow, it didn’t occur to them to remove the magazine, clear the chamber, and put a chamber flag or zip-tie through the action of the weapon?
“The rifle was … secured in the mount on the motorcycle during the incident,” Olden said at an evening news conference. “The child did approach the mounted rifle.”
Well now, “secured” is a relative term, isn’t it? It was loaded with the safety and trigger accessible to small children. Tell me again how well it was “secured.”
The students — whose ages were not immediately known — suffered minor injuries, Olden said. None were hit by gunfire. Two were likely struck by metal debris, resulting in “extremely minor injuries,” she said.
Really? You’re that sure the injuries were not gunfire? Perhaps what they mean to say is that there were not recognizable bullet holes, because the bullet, which was likely travelling around 2,700 feet-per-second when it impacts the ground, fragmented into a hot spray of brass and lead. The Chino Police spokesperson Olden can try to spin it to gullible reporters, but make no mistake; these kids were hit by ricocheting bullet fragments. They were shot.
She described the weapon as an AR-15 that was locked onto the bike. They were investigating how the weapon discharged and she said “there are several fail-safes in place” to prevent a discharge.
The primary fail-safe is an operator clearing the weapon. That didn’t happen. The next fail safe is the weapon’s safety. That was not engaged, or was left where it could be easily disengaged. The third fail safe is that no one touches the rifle, particularly not the safety and not the trigger. There were quite obviously zero operating fail safes, starting with the officer in charge of the weapon.
They had not determined how the weapon was fired, she said.
I’m going with, “the cop left a live round in the chamber and let a crumb-cruncher pull the trigger,” because that is precisely what happened.
Two students were taken to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, said Chino Valley Fire District spokeswoman Massiel Ladrón De Guevara.
The third student’s parents arrived at the school and declined to transport the child, she said.
Additional information about their injuries was unavailable.
“We’re still sorting out the extent of the injuries and how it happened,” Olden said earlier in the day.
Law enforcement officials were at Newman Elementary School for activities related to the nationwide drug-prevention campaign when the weapon was discharged during a demonstration, according to a statement from Chino Valley Unified School District.
Olden said the incident occurred about 11:15 a.m.
It shouldn’t be surprising that the Chino Police Department spokesperson is spinning this easily preventable negligent discharge like her life depends upon it, because quite frankly, they pay her to spin half-truths.
What is far less acceptable is the completely incurious nature of the reporters, who apparently never once asked why a loaded weapon was left in reach of elementary school children.
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