Have the "cleaning my gun" accidents been happening in your state?

[gc70]

I suspect that the appearance of an increase in "cleaning my gun" accidents is more of a reflection of the media's reporting trends than anything else.

The members of the media seem a lot like my dog when they report on some issues. He can ignore a toy for weeks, then he will notice it, nudge it, paw it, grab it and shake it until you would think his head would come off, then lose interest and move on to something else. Likewise, the media can latch on to a topic and get into a self-reinforcing loop of reporting.

 

[glh17]

I think there's something to the "media making a bigger deal out of it" because we have so much more reporting today. But most of the local stuff I become aware of is in the newspaper's police report section. These accidental discharges rarely if ever involve charges being brought but they show up on the police report and the paper prints that everyday. The first several minutes of the local tv news is about the same stuff only more regional than local.