Keep your booger hook off the bang switch
I don’t really have an issue with passive verb tense other than to the effect it is used to minimize something. Like this:
Two sheriff’s deputies in Lake County, Fla., were shot and injured when an officer’s gun accidentally discharged while training, according to a Lake County Sheriff’s Office release.
The officer accidentally discharged it. The gun did not accidentally discharge itself.
March 29th, 2005 at 10:10 am
Mistakes were made.
March 29th, 2005 at 10:59 am
Luckily, blame was avoided.
March 29th, 2005 at 4:42 pm
Actually, I would argue that an accident did not occur. You wrote; “The officer accidentally discharged it…”. While the discharge may have been an accident, the actions taken resulted in the discharge of the weapon. But they were purposeful. They achieved the result of firing the weapon. That (clearly) was not what the officer intended, but it was the result of a series of specific actions.
To me, it aligns with why automobile crashes are no longer referred to as “car accidents”. It wasn’t an accident that caused the crash. It was a series of actions that resulted in the crash.
Same difference here, me thinks.