NPR is on the cutting edge ...<typed with much sarcasm>

[JIMinPHX]

When did calling bullets "heads" start???

That's what my grandfather used to call them. It's not correct, but it's been around for a long time.

[Dale in Louisiana]

One of the reason NPR reporters do such a poor job on guns and hunting is they have dever done it. Talk a aquantance that hunts a little to take you top a range once and you know everything about guns and hunting. They didn't hunt or shoot as children and have no interest it it now. The peop[le that supervise them know less than they do. Most NPR types aren't shooters. Given their lack of knowledge they probably do a half way decent job of reporting.
As to a bullet being called a head, never! Head of cartridge has a head stamp on it. Calling a bullet a head or tip has to be a local idiom similar to the names southern bass fishermen have for various lures.

Not just NPR. Gone are the days when a reporter came into the business having a knowledge of anything other than journalism school. I got a good laugh earlier this week over an article (with a picture) showing a bunch of baby turtles heading for the ocean. The article said that the mother turtle had just given birth. A TURTLE!

It is equally revealing to listen to one hold forth on just about any topic. We have heavy industry in this area and the bloopers they pull over reporting any of that are hysterical, except when they film a cloud of water vapor or a cloud of nitrogen frost and call it 'pollution'.

Couple the ignorance of the people reporting the news with the people listening to the knew who are equally ill-informed, and it's not a surprise that we get the kind of government we have.

dale in Louisiana

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I got a good laugh earlier this week over an article (with a picture) showing a bunch of baby turtles heading for the ocean. The article said that the mother turtle had just given birth. A TURTLE!

I seen the photo and skipped over the article...Now I wished I read it...just for the laughs.

[Echo]

I look at it as simply ignorance, not stupidity. They just don't know - if corrected gently, they might learn something. Maybe not...

[KCSO]

I listen to NPR on a regular basis. Aside from the fact that I find classical music relaxing if you don't listen the the enemy you will never know what he is planning. This is about the same as reveiwing the bills in the legislature, you have to keep a close eye on the opposition. I will admit that after Native News or BBC at Night I really NEED the classical music but... As to their terminology If I had a nickle for every one who asked me for a box of bullets for their gun I wouldn't be working today.

[FISH4BUGS]

radio moscow!

[olgandalf]

I heard the NPR segment when it was broadcast and just got around this morning to reading it online and to see other peoples' reaction to it. As a regular NPR listener, I was happy that it was not hostile in tone and wasn't put in the usual context of emotional reaction to recent tragedies. Reloading was presented mostly as an odd hobby. Now about their misuse of the term "bullet." I am a pencil-necked English professor. (A life-long Republican too. Too young to vote for Goldwater but voted for Nixon. Twice. But that's beside the point.) Some words have one meaning for specialists and another meaning for other people. Physicists and engineers don't refer to the "engine" of my car as a "motor." The guys around the corner who work on it use the word "motor." I would be stupid and rude to correct them. Specialist use the term "Old English" to mean the language between 650 and 1100; everybody else uses "Old English to mean the language of Shakespeare or the King James Bible. Confusion happens without anybody being a moron. On this site and others, my newbie posts have been answered with patience and kindness when I asked about suitable boolits for GEW 88, CZ 52, Yugo tok, and 95 Nagant. Sorry if I'm longwinded.