While tweeting about the Thursday Annapolis shooting, Andrea Mitchell indicated that NBC reporter Pete Williams described a shotgun as a “backwards funnel.”

Mitchell tweeted:

One can only presume that Williams is referencing the fact that a shotgun shoots a pattern of shot, rather than a single projectile. However, although the shot spreads upon leaving the barrel, it is not like shooting a “backwards funnel.”

Rather, it is like shooting a bunch of lead (or steal or Tungsten BBs all at once. The precise number of shot contained in a shell vary based type of shot and size.

Breitbart News reported that Jarrod Ramos allegedly opened fire on employees at Capital Gazette on Thursday, killing five. He used a legally acquired pump 12-gauge shotgun. Despite the left’s obsession with AR-15s, a shotgun is far more formidable close quarters weapon.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.