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Television shows continued obsession with criminals using machine guns, Two Episodes of The Blacklist

May 15, 2020 | Media Bias

media bias on guns Television show machine gun myth television show media bias on guns

 

As we have pointed out many times, television crime shows seem to think criminals are constantly using machine guns to shoot people. NBC again shows criminals using machine guns. The Blacklist (S7 E16 April 24, 2020) has a slightly different twist with criminals using machine guns against other criminals. The next episode (S7 E17 May 1, 2020) again has criminals with machine guns. In part of the episode, FBI Agent Donald Ressler (played by Diego Klattenhoff) grabs a machine gun from a criminal and uses it to shoot other criminals.

In real life, criminals use machine guns so rarely that a 2016 survey of prison inmates only broke down the numbers for uses of handguns, rifles, and shotguns. The survey did not even mention fully automatic weapons. Since 1934, there was only one possible known use ever of a civilian using a machine gun in a murder. And even before 1934, they were very rare. The two people killed in the second of these two episodes is greater than all the people killed in the United States since 1934.

Here is a list of shows from the 2018-19 television season that showed criminals using machine guns.

The Rookie (Season1): E2, E4, E9, E17, E20 

Magnum PI (Season 1): E1, E15 

Chicago P.D. (Season 6): E14 

In the current 2019-2020 season, we haven’t been keeping close track, but other recent examples include: 

CBS’ SWAT (Season 3): E11 January 15 2020 

CBS’ FBI (Season 2): E12 January 14, 2020; Episode 18, March 24, 2020

Fox’s Deputy (Season 1): E1 January 2, 2020 

FBI: Most Wanted (Season 1): Episode 4, January 28, 2020; Episode 6, February 18, 2020, Episode 9, March 24, 2020 

Chicago PD (Season 7): Episode 10 January 8, 2020; Episode 16, March 4, 2020; Season 7, Episode 17, March 18, 2020; Episode 20, April 15 2020

Hawaii Five-O (Season 10): Episode 18, February 28, 2020; Episode 20, March 13, 2020; Episode 21, March 27, 2020

Magnum PI (Season 2), Episode 18, May 1, 2020

Blue Bloods (Season 10): Episode 19, May 1, 2020

The Blacklist (Season 7): Episode 16, April 24, 2020, Episode 17 May 1, 2020.

Other examples of television media bias on this particular point can be found here.

johnrlott

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