NBC correspondent Pete Williams employed an interesting analogy on Friday when trying to describe how shotguns work.
According to Williams, describing the gun used by the shooter in the Capital Gazette newsroom on Thursday, insisted that shotguns operate like a “backwards funnel.”
“A shotgun, uh, uh, you know, if you’re not familiar with a shotgun, it sets out a spray of pellets and because a bullet simply goes in a straight line and shotgun is sort of like a backwards funnel, it spreads it out so that you don’t have to aim very precisely,” Williams claimed on MSNBC on Friday. “It can do a lot of damage to the people that you aim it at, but you don’t fire a lot of rounds with a shotgun, so I think that has something to do with it.”
WATCH:
NBC anchor Andrea Mitchell tweeted out Williams’ analysis as well.
.@PeteWilliamsNBC on the weapon used in the newsroom shooting: a shotgun is like a backwards funnel, you don’t have to have direct aim to hurt a lot of people. It was purchased legally. #AMR
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) June 29, 2018
Twitter users mocked Williams for his uninformed take.
IF you use buck shot or bird shot, then it can spray. But is in no way comparable to a “backwards funnel” Is there even any evidence he used shot and not slugs?
— Ben Jammin (@xBenJamminx) June 29, 2018
OMG your that dumb huh…. I get that you don’t understand anything about guns, because you don’t like them. But – to me, if your going to be good at your job, and have to report on guns, why not learn something.
— MeanMachineRedNBlack (@cessna182r) June 29, 2018
So THAT’S my problem goose hunting.
Trying to aim.
— Karl Schmidt (@Karsmdt) June 29, 2018
But does it fire full semi auto?
— Richie (@Richie_Sloth) June 29, 2018
Is “funnel” secret code for “assault?”
— Eduardo Suastegui (@eduardoauthor) June 29, 2018
Ah, another episode of “People Who Have No Idea How Guns Work Lecture Us About Guns” https://t.co/HI3C1Ufu3T
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 29, 2018