CNN appeared to mistake imitation firearms for AK-47s Thursday in a report on a hearing for a Massachusetts Air National Guard member accused of posting classified documents online.
The FBI arrested Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Air National Guard in Massachusetts, on charges relating to the posting of classified documents on various social media sites April 13. The documents covered various topics, including perceived weaknesses in Ukrainian defenses and plans to rebuild that country’s military.
One photo CNN aired showed three long guns, two of which clearly had the orange tips often found on imitation firearms, while a third, which was clearly not an AK-47-style firearm, appeared to have orange discoloration at the end of the barrel. Such a marking is required by federal law, according to HobbyStrategy.com.
“The filing also includes pictures from the search warrant executed on Teixeira’s bedroom,” the CNN report said. “The photos show a gun locker next to his bed, containing multiple weapons, including an AK-style weapon, handguns, shotguns, and a gas mask.”
WATCH:
Massachusetts has a ban on certain semi-automatic firearms labeled as “assault weapons” in force, which covers AK-style semi-automatic rifles.
Imitation guns fire 6mm pellets using compressed air, gearboxes or springs, and are often used in competitions and for training. One retailer, Evike.com, offers toy guns that bear a resemblance to a variety of military small arms, including the M249 and RPD machine guns, the M4 carbine, the M1A1 Thompson submachine gun, the Heckler and Koch G3 and the AK-74.
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