Firearms, gun issues at center of journalism workshop in Hartford

EAST GRANBY — Reporters from news outlets across the state gathered Friday to learn how to report accurately on firearms and gun issues. Mark Timney and Chad Nye, Keene State College journalism professors, conducted the training session, which was sponsored by the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists. The National Shooting Sports Foundation helped facilitate the event, hosted at the Hartford Gun Club. The professors, who are gun owners and enthusiasts, have conducted at least one gun-centered workshop a year in New England for the past five years, Timney said. “I saw journalists, primarily through ignorance, were doing a poor job of reporting on the issues,” he said, “just because they didn’t know enough to ask the right questions.” It was the second time CTSPJ brought Timney and Nye to Connecticut from New Hampshire for the firearms reporting workshop. “What we’re trying to get at,” Nye said, “is to present information, illustrations and experiences” in a non-political way. Timney said one of the workshop’s goals is give reporters the right tools and correct terminology, from the basic parts of a gun to hot-button issues like 3-D printed guns, ghost guns and bump stocks. Without it, reporters risk losing the audience calling their credibility into question. “Being gun people and journalists, we cringe when we see articles that are technically incorrect,” he said. The workshop helps reporters come up with better ideas for stories, he said, that go deeper than just reporting on shootings or other gun-related events. “It seems like […]

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