When I was in my newsgathering class in college, I got in an argument with a dude in class about whether or not it was more acceptable to say “shot” or “shot dead” in a news story if someone had been killed by gunshot wound. (In the event of an injury from a gunshot, dude maintained that it should say “shot and injured”, but I’ve never heard of anyone that got shot that was totally fine.)
Today on the Two-Way, there’s a story about a man who killed a bear that got into his house with a shotgun. Or, rather “shotgunned it to death”. Can shotgun be a verb? I really want to ask the awesome crime reporter at work about it (he regularly uses words like “donnybrook” , so he would know).
And if you haven’t had chance to take a look at the Two-Way, poke around a bit. It’s a new news blog, and it’s totally winning me over.
2 Comments
Shotgun is only a verb in a first person shooter or other similar video game. Maybe in a zombie movie, but not at a news outlet.
I’ve only heard “shotgun” used as a verb in the context of shotgunning things like beer and pot smoke.
Oh, and be sure to read Hank’s story in Thursday’s paper about the kids who shot Antonio Burks. He managed to get the word “metastasized” in there!
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