USA Today was widely mocked on Twitter Wednesday for a graphic making it seem as if the Texas church shooter used an assault-style rifle modified with a “chainsaw bayonet.”
The news organization tweeted, “A look at the gun used in the Texas church shooting,” and included a video with a graphic of a Ruger AR-556 rifle with several modifications, including a chainsaw bayonet.
A look at the gun used in the Texas church shooting. https://t.co/xdxIf5fR77 pic.twitter.com/sUY1mCCLZC
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) November 8, 2017
While it does appear that a chainsaw bayonet is a real modification that can be made to rifles, USA Today later tweeted a clarification saying, “To clarify, the video shows both the shooter’s modifications, as well as other possible modifications. The shooter did not use a chainsaw bayonet.”
To clarify, the video shows both the shooter’s modifications, as well as other possible modifications. The shooter did not use a chainsaw bayonet.
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) November 8, 2017
The original tweet inspired a host of imaginative Twitter users to design other possible modifications to assault-style rifles that USA Today left out of their original video.
For millennial gun enthusiasts:
My God pic.twitter.com/VQDNwnz4Dm
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) November 8, 2017
Wow. Millennials have now ruined guns, too. pic.twitter.com/QuD1mHzylO
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) November 8, 2017
For use in a galaxy far, far away:
Or this? pic.twitter.com/z6RTFPaLGd
— Jacob Smyth (@JacobMyth) November 8, 2017
H/T @bubbaradio for creating this, the ultimate power in the universe pic.twitter.com/7AniqV1FD9
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 8, 2017
And for good measure, some terrifying, but implausible modifications:
H/T @TheAntiCrat for this homage to nature’s beauty and terror pic.twitter.com/I0gYhNZ1Ig
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 8, 2017
H/T @LisaDeP, who sends the most terrifying iteration of a rifle modification yet pic.twitter.com/lUZYzhV5jz
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 8, 2017
