I purposely did not include a link at the end of my latest "gun safety" article, because it went to a piece from years back when I used the word that is the bane of anyone who knows anything about guns, "clip." I knew someone would pick up on that and make that and my evident ignorance the focus instead of the discussion I was inviting.
It's something I quickly learned not to repeat lest it bring hot coals and derision down upon my head, but in my defense, one of the writers who had influenced me was decorated combat legend Col. David Hackworth. He used it on occasion, and I figured I'd leave it to someone else to insist that he was wrong and deserving of their scorn:
2 comments:
I have a book of old science fiction short stories. All the stories were written in the 50's. Top notch writers. All were pretty much manly men doing manly things and aliens. In every other story before going out to confront the bad guy the protagonist would "check the 'clip' of his old war pistol and put it in the pocket of his coat". (get you arrested now) What I am getting at is that calling a mag a clip has been around for ever. Forget about it!
"In common use at the time..." :-)
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