The NRA may well be one of the most demonized organizations in the country. What’s more, most of that demonization is based on what some people think is happening, rather than what the NRA actually does.

But those who often tell people what they should be thinking about the organization also generally don’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to gun issues.

We all know this.

Yet it’s hilarious when they screw up royally like the New York Times recently did.

In writing his famous novel, 1984, George Orwell penned the famous phrase “ignorance is strength” as part of the fictional Big Brother government’s practice of giving misinformation to the general public.

Perhaps The New York Times is trying to emulate this very same method, as one recent piece from its editorial board showcased a stunning lack of knowledge on a topic they love to write about.

In a piece titled “America’s Toxic Gun Culture,” the Times tweeted, “The AR-15 has become a talisman for some right-wing politicians and voters. ‘That’s a particularly disturbing trend at a time when violent political rhetoric and actual political violence in the United States are rising,’ writes the editorial board.”

Tellingly, the accompanying image showed dozens of shotgun shells, and nothing else. The Times knowledge of this issue is so thin, they think it makes perfect sense to run a photo of shotgun shells with an article demonizing AR-15-style rifles.

It is incredible that a newspaper as large and storied as The New York Times doesn’t have one editor who can look over gun-related articles to save the staff from embarrassing mistakes like this. If they are going to attack a very popular type of product, such as a semi-automatic rifle, then shouldn’t they at least understand that this tool that they loathe is not a shotgun?

Now, understand that most media outlets will use photographs that don’t have a lot to do with the article in question, simply because posts with photos do better on social media. We include a lot of stock and archive images ourselves for just this reason.

But we don’t include photographs that are so blatantly wrong because, well, it’s stupid.

Using a picture of shotgun shells on a general Second Amendment story might make sense, but on one focused on weapons like the AR-15? That hardly makes any sense.

Especially when the feeds they have access to have a ton of AR-15 and AK-47 images they could have used. The AP alone has plenty of options.

So yeah, this is just pure stupidity on the part of the New York Times, and the NRA mocking them for it is completely warranted. Especially since the Times routinely blasts the NRA, then turns around and does something so mind-numbingly stupid as this.

No, this doesn’t address the overall point the Times was trying to make, but if they can’t bother to get a pic that at least has some resemblance to what they’re talking about, why should we assume they understand anything else on the topic?