NYT Mocked for Posting Photo of Shotgun Shells While Referring to AR-15s

The New York Times is being mocked after its editorial board published an op-ed criticizing “toxic gun culture” and used a photo of shotgun shells while referring to AR-15s.

NYT Opinion tweeted:

The AR-15 has become a talisman for some right-wing politicians and voters. “That’s a particularly disturbing trend at a time when violent political rhetoric and actual political violence in the United States are rising,” writes the editorial board. https://t.co/xLqthLEkSA

— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 10, 2022

To be clear, an AR-15 shoots .223 or 5.56 rifle ammo, not shotgun shells.

Club for Growth senior analyst Andrew Follet called out the NYT, tweeting, “Complains about AR15s…with a picture of shotgun shells. This is hysterical.”

FOX News quoted columnist Kurt Schlichter reacting to the photo: “I find it amusing, I am once again begging the MSM journalists to take just a couple of basic firearms class to avoid dumba–ery like this.”

The NYT editorial board’s op-ed says, in part:

A growing number of American civilians have an unhealthy obsession with ‘tactical culture’ and rifles like the AR-15. It’s a fringe movement among the 81 million American gun owners, but it is one of several alarming trends that have coincided with the increase in political violence in this country, along with the spread of far-right extremist groups, an explosion of anti-government sentiment and the embrace of deranged conspiracy theories by many Republican politicians.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation told Breitbart News there are approximately 25 million firearms which Democrats label “assault weapons” in circulation in the USA. Millions upon millions of those firearms are AR-15s, which shoot rifle ammo, not shotgun shells.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a PhD in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.