Did Jeopardy Just Get a Question on Guns Absolutely Wrong?

Let me start by saying I love Alex Trebek and I'm rooting for his successful recovery from cancer. However, I believe they got one question very wrong during Thursday night's airing of the gameshow.

"Weapon Types" was the category and it seemed like the one everyone was avoiding.

"I'll take Weapon Types for $800,' said Scott, the returning champion, and Alex delivered the answer.

"BOLT ACTION; AR, ALSO CALLED MODERN SPORTING..." and Scott buzzed in.

"Scott," said Alex. The contestant answered with, "What is an assault rifle," and Alex responded with a commanding - "Yes!"

The problem is, that answer is absolutely wrong.

BOLT ACTION; AR or just AR does not stand for assault rifle and similarly, modern sporting rifles are also NOT assault rifles. So, the answer is doubly incorrect because Alex is talking about two different firearm terms. This can only be correct with TWO responses, and to be honest, TWO questions.

Answer one refers to the AR portion, which would most definitely be ArmaLite Rifle. ArmaLite Rifle was the original manufacturer of the AR-15, developed in the late 1950s. AR definitely stands for ArmaLite.

The second part references modern sporting or modern sporting rifle, which refers to semi-automatic rifles, including the AR-15. A semi-automatic rifle is not an assault rifle or an automatic rifle, and nor is the AR-15. So you see, this Jeopardy answer and question combination was completely flawed.

So, you think I'm overreacting? I hope not! This world is upside-down!

At a time when nothing seems right, not being able to count on Jeopardy to be correct when we're watching religiously every night during a pandemic is absolutely frightening. If we can't count on Jeopardy, who can we count on? With tongue in cheek, I feel that by torturing classic American terminology like this, Jeopardy has placed us all - in double jeopardy.

Or, maybe it's just a much-needed distraction.

Alex, I'll take Much Needed Distraction for a thousand.