USA Today was recently on the receiving end of Twitter ridicule after releasing a short video about aftermarket options for the AR-15-style weapon. According to the video, the rifle used by the perpetrator of the horrific Texas church shooting — a modified Ruger AR-556 — can be accessorized with a number of modifications, including a chainsaw bayonet.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Actually, the chainsaw bayonet is a real attachment but as noted by Truth Revolt it is hardly practical and is merely a novelty item. It is mainly meant as a gag to impress friends or possibly to help the owner prepare for the coming zombie apocalypse, according to the website. In reality, “No one should be afraid that the next mass shooting will have victims cut up by a chainsaw.”

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

The Washington Examiner identified one company that sells what it describes as weaponized chainsaws for mounting on a rifle with a military standard rail. That said, the site noted that the company, Panacea X, specializes in “survivalist tools” and that a chainsaw bayonet is unlikely to be at the top of anyone’s Christmas list, the Examiner suggested.

Is it practical? Nope. Is it popular? Not really. Is it definitely a gag for gun enthusiasts? Yes. Should you be worried about a mass shooter with a chainsaw? You have no reason to be. Have you ever heard of it prior to the USA Today tweet? Probably not.

Is USA Today guilty of fear-mongering vis-a-vis a definitely obscure rifle accessory? Yep…

The mockery in response to USA Today‘s perceived fear-mongering on social media chastened the news outlet such that it tweeted out a clarification that the Texas shooter never used a chainsaw bayonet. The video depicts the shooter’s modifications along with those that are “possible,” USA Today wrote.

The mainstream liberal media predictably jumps on the gun control bandwagon each time one of these horrible mass murders occurs. Yet in this instance, a licensed firearms owner with his own rifle confronted the shooter after he exited the church in Texas and shot him. “If this armed citizen had not stopped the shooter in Sutherland Springs, Texas, there’s no telling how many more innocent victims might have been killed,” Natural News founding editor Mike Adams asserted. Adams has also warned that the left in America wants to make the entire country a gun-free zone, in the process stripping away the right of self-defense for law-abiding individuals. (Related: Read more about Second Amendment rights at Guns.news.)

Media reports also suggest that the U.S. Air Force dropped the ball by failing in its obligation to notify federal authorities of the shooter’s court-martial and domestic violence conviction. Existing laws, rather than imposing additional layers of gun control regulations, should have prevented him from legally buying a gun when he attempted to pass the required FBI background check.

Sources include:

TruthRevolt.org

WashingtonExaminer.com