[cmperry4]

Rob, that's one of the things I asked Tamara about. I asked if she knew or has asked if any or all of the guns were active or not - I explained what DEWAT was. She had no idea, and apparently assumed or was given to believe by the cops that guns were all fully active (and it seems from the police point of view, the difference doesn't much matter). As for ammo - who knows?

At least Tamara talked to Jaime Cline (probably because she was steered to her by the assignment editor, whom I first steered to Marway on another story in an attempt to stave off some ignorant reporting), and got a good quote from her, but it was buried at the end of the story.

I also pointed out to Tamara that, strictly speaking, a Bren is not a "heavy-duty" machine-gun, and explained to her exactly what an "automatic" Sten gun is. All she could do was plead ignorance and say she could only report what the cops told her. To her credit, she seemed to appreciate the information.

As for follow ups by the Sun - you're right on that. And it's not just gun stories. When a story is updated, the reporter will just bring up the original story, cut and paste in the background, so the same stuff will be repeated, unless an editor is thinking and catches it the second time around.

But, like the rest of the media, she just had to lap up with the cops put on the table and put in their press release. The media runs in its comfortable grooves like a lot of things, and on the gun issue, most of its denizens have bought into the received Liberal view of the gun issue, and don't bother to ask awkward questions. And the Liberals are counting on that.