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Reader question: Please explain “firing line” in the following: Europe is worried about the increase of obesity in children over the last years. The fast food industry is in the firing line, especially due to the tactics they employ in the advertising aimed at children. My comments: The fast food industry uses all sorts of tricks in their advertisements to lure children to their junk. Food, I mean. And in Europe, when people begin to worry about the increase of obesity in children, the fast food industry naturally becomes the target for criticism. That’s why the fast food industry is said be “in the firing line”, where it’s exposed to enemy gunfire – or metaphorically verbal attack (criticism) from opponents. “Firing line” is originally a military term. In the past, when the primary weaponry was rifles, soldiers marched in what is called formations of neatly arranged rows. Soldiers walking in the first or front row were in the firing line. That is, when it was time to open fire at the enemy, soldiers in the front raised their rifles and shot. Needlessly to say, these soldiers were also exposed to gunfire from the enemy. If one soldier in the front row got killed or hurt, the soldier in the second row stepped up and joined the other soldiers in the front row to shoot. Then he was in the firing line. Hence, metaphorically people who are described as “in the firing line” are exposed to danger, usually criticism for being responsible for some wrong doing. | 
