Yet another inaccurate and misleading front page Inquirer story attempting to vilify guns instead of the criminals who misuse them.

And yet another meaningless series of corrections by a mean-spirited gun nut whose corrections would only matter to other mean-spirited gun nuts (and possibly a few kooks who dare worry about inaccuracy or bias in the media while people are dying):

In a city plagued by epidemic violence, certain slayings always stand out: the grandmother killed in a parked car by Wild West-style gunfire; the parent senselessly gunned down while minding her kids on the street.

Amid the drumbeat of homicides this year - already at 95, a record for recent years - the slaughter of innocents resonates most deeply.

Kingsessing neighbors say Jovonne Stelly, 28, was just such an innocent mother. She was killed in broad daylight Sunday by an errant gunshot during a battle that police say involved at least four people using high-caliber automatic pistols on Pentridge Street in Southwest Philadelphia. The area, a homicide hot spot, was already the site of increased police patrols.

According to an earlier report, one of the shooters was her nephew, and the confrontation "had begun the night before and reignited about 4:30 p.m.":

A 17-year-old youth was shot in the arm, and a 19-year-old man was shot in the leg. They were taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Stelly's relatives said the 17-year-old was her nephew.

The shooting occurred in the 12th Police District, the same neighborhood where Mayor Street and Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson less than two weeks ago announced plans to assign 80 additional officers in an effort to curb a surge in violence.

The effort, which started March 14, targets a district that "has been troubled by gun violence," Street said, and is viewed as one of the most dangerous areas in the city.

The gun battle between two feuding families took the life of 28-year-old Jovanne Stelly.

"The commissioner and all the deputies will be working the streets of Philadelphia in uniform," said Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson. "[What happened in Kingsessing this weekend] was a gun fight between two groups, like what used to be the wild west. But Philadelphia is not a wild west city."

But what about the phrase "high caliber"? As Dave Kopel points out elsewhere, the phrase is often misused. As this site explains, it's a non-descriptive term:

The high-caliber rifle is an invention by the news media. Bullets are propelled by a chemical explosion that can be of high-power or low-power.

Caliber is the bore diameter in decimal-inches. You could theoretically refer to a gun with a wide barrel as large-caliber. From my time at aberdeen proving grounds, large caliber is generally a tank round.

Snipers use a range of bullet diameters, some of them up to 0.50 caliber. While that is large-caliber for a rifle, it is peanuts compared to an artillery piece. The also tend to use high-power ammunition to travel long distances.

So you can have high or low power and large or small caliber. But high-caliber is nonsense unless, perhaps, you are referring to the fine workmanship that went into it.

If we assume (as I think we must) that the guns used in the latest shooting were semi-automatic handguns, then they would not be high-velocity, so, giving the writer the benefit of the doubt, it is fair to assume than when he says "high caliber," he means "large caliber."

The problem with that is there's no indication in today's story that large caliber bullets were used. Instead, there's this reference to a 9mm (which happens to be the most commonly available handgun):

Hearing shots fired around 4:30 p.m., Stelly rushed to the street to retrieve two of her children when a bullet crashed through her skull. Two teens, including Stelly's 17-year-old nephew Kendall Sterns, were wounded in the fusillade of as many as 40 rounds unleashed in minutes, police said yesterday.

Investigators did not elaborate on their initial statement that the violence sprang from a lingering dispute that apparently resurfaced.

"She truly didn't deserve to die like this. All she ever wanted was a chance to bring up her babies," said Gregory Burnside, 46, recalling Stelly's devotion to her four children: Rashiek, 9; Curtise, 7; Jaylah, 3, and Naj, just a few months old.

"We need help. When Rizzo was in, there was fear that kept us straight," Burnside said, referring to the hard-line police commissioner and mayor. "That's the help we need. It's way too easy to walk around here with a 9mm."

Not high power, and not large caliber.

I can only conclude that the writer used the term "high caliber" in the same way he used the word "slaughter" -- as rhetorical hyperbole.

I am, however, fascinated by the statement that "when Rizzo was in, there was fear that kept us straight," because I remember Frank Rizzo quite well. He epitomized law and order, was much feared by criminals, and the left absolutely hated him. I think he'd probably be elected overwhelmingly were he alive today, because he'd promise to clean up the crime, and based on his track record, people would believe him.

I doubt he'd focus on guns as the cause, as this administration is doing. And if he did, he'd know the difference between large and small caliber weapons, and probably between automatic and semi-automatic. The article continues:

Johnson said an officer was about a half-block away when Sunday's gunfire erupted and arrived at Pentridge Street about the time the first call to 911 came in. He said shootings and violent crime were down compared with last year, even though the number of homicides is up.

Among the factors that could account for that, he said, were the increased use of automatic weapons (which fire more bullets and faster), and the question of whether a victim can get to one of the city's hospitals that is best equipped to handle gunshot wounds.

There's no question that this death was tragic, but what I want to know is why there has been no discussion of the shooters. Were any arrests made? Why not? Considering all the discussion, speculation, and outright mischaracterization of firearms, and the use of the word "slaughter," why is it that nowhere (in any of the articles I've seen) do the words "suspect" or "arrest" occur? And why is it that no reward has been offered?

You'd almost think the guns were the only suspects. Or is there some rule of which I'm unaware that murders committed in the course of family feuds are the fault of the guns?

Were the Hatfields and the McCoys an argument for gun control?

Who knew?