On Thursday, Feb. 8, we ran an article based on a report from the Gainesville Police Department about guns painted to look like toys. GPD provided us with a photo, which we ran in the paper and online. As far as we knew, the entire issue was about disguising guns in order to confuse law enforcement.
We were wrong.
This story should have been about gun laws, gun-owners and the concerns voiced by law enforcement, not just the perspective of law enforcement on this trend. We should have asked GPD where they got the photo of the rifle and followed up to make sure we could use it. (Turns out, the whole thing was handed down from New York.)
The owner of the Hello Kitty rifle contacted us and asked us to remove the photo. Still under the impression that he was manufacturing the guns, we edited the article with an editor's note: "As per a request from the company that is making the Hello Kitty rifle, we have taken down the image."
At this point another issue surfaced: Because of the way our content management system works, when we edit an article that has already been published and commented on, the comments on that article are deleted.
Suddenly we look like censors.
Another round of e-mails and the article was again edited (and again the comments deleted), to read: Editors Note: As per a request from the person who made the Hello Kitty rifle, we have taken down the image.
We made a number of mistakes with this story, and there are no excuses. We could have held the story to keep checking the facts. We didn't.
We have been asked to rewrite the story, but that's something we can't do for a number of reasons. First, the story has already run. Aside from running corrections, we can't go back and change a story. Secondly, it is no longer a story that is pertinent to Gainesville.
The real story behind the Hello Kitty gun is here.
