In CNN's report on the pregnant Florida woman who used her husband's AR-15 rifle to scare off the two intruders who broke into their home, the outlet described the weapon as an "automatic rifle."
The AR-15 is a semi-automatic rifle and is unable to fire more than one round per pull of the trigger.
"A Florida man said two armed men invaded his home and were beating him when his wife, eight months pregnant, saved the day by shooting one of the intruders with an automatic rifle," CNN reported.
In their tweet about the story, the "automatic rifle" portion was included.
A Florida man said two armed men invaded his home and were beating him when his wife, eight months pregnant, saved the day by shooting one of the intruders with an automatic rifle, a CNN affiliate reports https://t.co/DHb6eSlpnI
— CNN (@CNN) November 5, 2019
The tweet has been heavily criticized for getting a small, but a crucial fact wrong.
I'm glad to see CNN highlighting this story. National media should tell gun defense stories like this more often.
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) November 5, 2019
However, the AR-15 is not an automatic rifle. It is a semi-automatic rifle. It fires one shot each time the trigger is pulled. That part needs to be corrected. https://t.co/X68n6HH6FE
An AR-15 is not an automatic rifle. You should know this by now https://t.co/HLBc7JMfx8
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) November 5, 2019
Do they think the "AR" in AR-15 stands for "automatic rifle"? https://t.co/ToyVTxWicY
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) November 5, 2019
"I’ve got a fractured eye socket, a fractured sinus cavity, a concussion, 20 stitches and three staples in my head. I took a severe beating," Jeremy King said about the incident.
"They came in heavily hooded and masked. As soon as they had got the back door opened, they had a pistol on me and was grabbing my 11-year-old daughter,” he said, adding the masked men were asking for money. When he said he had nothing to give them, "It became real violent, real fast.”
His wife was able to grab the semi-automatic rifle and shot one of them as they fled the home. The intruder was found dead a near the house.
“[She] evened the playing field and kept them from killing me," King said.
Update: CNN has corrected the copy of the story and sent a correction tweet without deleting the initial tweet.
A Florida man said armed men invaded his home and were beating him when his wife, eight months pregnant, shot one of the intruders with a semiautomatic rifle, a CNN affiliate reports. (Corrects type of rifle used) https://t.co/GubCBMSvIK
— CNN (@CNN) November 5, 2019