CNN Uses Deceptive Data on School Shootings to Push for Gun Confiscation
Far-left Cable News Network spreads false info to attack Second Amendment
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Hyper-partisan news network CNN used misleading and deceptive information during a segment calling for gun confiscation measures to be introduced in the United States, according to reports.
In the wake of the Colorado school shooting last week, far-left Cable News Network ran a feature on Tuesday attacking the Second Amendment which culminated with the outlet championing national gun confiscation.
The report followed the shooting last week, in which two teenagers are accused of fatally shooting a classmate and wounding eight others at a Denver-area high school.
18-year-old Devon Erickson and 16-year-old Alec McKinney - who goes by the name Maya Elizabeth McKinney - were both arrested on suspicion of a single count of first-degree murder and 29 counts of attempted murder immediately after the May 7 shooting spree.
The pair is accused of opening fire on fellow students inside two classrooms at the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) charter school in Highlands Ranch, about 25 miles south of Denver.
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According to a report by the Daily Wire's Ryan Saavedra, CNN's Brooke Baldwin ran a segment the day after the Colorado school shooting, which left one dead and several injured, that featured extremely deceptive statistics and provided no source for the information.
The video, which was over 3 minutes long, showed the following numbers appearing on the screen as Baldwin sat silently looking at the camera:
- "35 U.S. School Shootings Since The Fall"
- "336 School Shootings Since 2008"
- "373,663 Killed By Gun Violence From 2007-2017"
The presentation then stated: "If words aren’t changing anything, then what about these images?"
CNN cut to photos of children and mothers crying.
"Parents waiting to hear their child’s name called… or not," the graphic continued.
"Children with their hands up… at school. Or clenched… to pray."
"If this isn’t a crisis now… when will it be?" the graphic concluded. "ENOUGH."
Every statistic that Baldwin used in her presentation was deceptive or completely false.
The Daily Wire reached out to CNN multiple times over a period of two days to seek the sources of the information used in the segment and received no response.
The New York Times, which is a left-leaning publication, reported that there have been 111 school shootings in the U.S. since 1970, which met the FBI’s definition for an active-shooter scenario, whereas CNN claimed without evidence that there have been 336 school shootings since 2008.
CNN also provided no evidence for their claim that there have been 35 school shootings since last fall.
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The only statistic that CNN used that could be traced to a legitimate source was their claim that there have been 373,663 people killed by firearms in the U.S. from 2007-2017.
However, this statistic is very misleading.
The 373,663 number includes firearm deaths that break down into the following five categories:
- Unintentional
- Suicide
- Homicide
- Undetermined
- Legal intervention/operations of war
The only category that is relevant when looking at "gun violence" is the homicide number, which, for the 11-year span, is 134,224 deaths.
The majority of the deaths, well over 225,000, were suicides.
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), which is part of the Office of Justice Programs, reports that "gun-related homicide is most prevalent among gangs and during the commission of felony crimes."
Baldwin failed to inform her audience of any of these facts and instead combined the misleading statistics with sad images to emotionally manipulate her audience.
CNN won't say where they got these "facts":
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 14, 2019
“35 US School Shootings Since Fall”
“336 School Shootings Since 2008”
Misleading:
“373,663 Killed By Gun Violence From 2007-2017.” This includes:
-Unintentional
-Suicide
-Homicide
-Undetermined
-Legal Intervention/Operations of War pic.twitter.com/BWy5i3bC4t
CNN's Chris Cuomo ran a segment later that day that also used misleading statistics, which at least came from a report, unlike most of Baldwin's random numbers.
Of the 15 shootings that CNN counted as school shootings:
- Reports only listed handguns as the weapon used, no "assault rifles"
- 1 shooting was an accident
- 4 were on college campuses, including one near a restaurant
- 1 shooting was on a bus - the student was struck in the hand by a bullet that came from outside the bus
- 1 shooting involved a BB gun
- 1 shooting occurred when a man, who did not go to the school, was running on the school's track after school and confronted someone who was breaking into his car
- 2 shootings happened late at night at basketball games
- 1 shooting happened during a drug deal in a parking lot
- 1 shooting involved a man who showed up to a school and shot a family member, who worked at the school
This list includes drug deals, accidental shootings, incidents that happened near schools but aren't related to them, as well as a BB gun injury. Just to be clear about what's being counted here. https://t.co/plNB78njVV
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) May 9, 2019
Cuomo mentioned none of this to his viewers and instead presented the information in such a way as to make it seem like all 15 incidents were the same type of incident as what occurred in Colorado — a mass shooting where there were multiple victims.
15 shootings, 19 weeks of school...@ChrisCuomo asks: Why is this new reality OK? We're not attacking the problem. We sit and watch. We reward those who do something to save themselves or others while we refuse to do a damn thing... Look at these stolen souls. We've done nothing pic.twitter.com/ktZUBiASSF
— CNN (@CNN) May 9, 2019
On Tuesday, Baldwin and CNN's Alisyn Camerota pushed the Left's agenda of seeking to ban all semi-automatic firearms from the U.S. and having the government confiscate them from citizens.
Camerota said, "We don’t have to live this way...we don't have to send our kids off to school every day just crossing fingers and hoping that they’re not sitting ducks for gun violence.
"We can fix this. Australia had a mass shooting. They fixed it.
"Other places have given us actually a blueprint on how to do this."
Camerota was referring to Australia confiscating firearms from their law-abiding citizens.
Reminder that @CNN doesn't really deliver the news anymore. Supposedly straight news anchors offer opinions (such as floating gun control measures) as if they were CNN political commentators....except they're not. They're "anchors" or "hosts." pic.twitter.com/xemfbTvfUE
— NewsBusters (@newsbusters) May 14, 2019
Through all of CNN's political activism, the left-wing network failed to mention the fact that studies have found that schools are actually safer now than they were before the infamous Columbine shooting happened in 1999.
CNN also did not mention any of the following statistics compiled by The Heritage Foundation that debunk most gun control narratives:
- Violent crime is down and has been on the decline for decades.
- The principal public safety concerns with respect to guns are suicides and illegally owned handguns, not mass shootings.
- A small number of factors significantly increase the likelihood that a person will be a victim of a gun-related homicide.
- Gun-related murders are carried out by a predictable pool of people.
- Higher rates of gun ownership are not associated with higher rates of violent crime.
- There is no clear relationship between strict gun control legislation and homicide or violent crime rates.
- Legally owned firearms are used for lawful purposes much more often than they are used to commit crimes or suicide.
- Concealed carry permit holders are not the problem, but they may be part of the solution.
Read the full report from The Heritage Foundation here.
