Saturday, February 17, 2018

No, There Haven't Been 18 School Shootings This Year — Not Even Close

The latest mass shooting, which claimed 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, was a horrible tragedy. But that's no excuse for the flurry of stories parroting a gun control advocacy group's false claims about school shootings.
In the immediate wake of the shooting, headlines starting appearing at major news sites:
"There have already been 18 school shootings in the US this year" — ABC News 
"18 school shootings in 45 days — Florida massacre is one of many tragedies in 2018"—CNBC 
"18 school shootings in US in 2018"— AFP 
"U.S. averages a school shooting every 2.5 days in 2018" — Politico 
"We're Averaging One School Shooting Every 60 Hours In 2018" — Huffington Post
When not in the headline, this claim shows up in just about every story about the Florida shooting.
So, it must be true, right? Why else would every news outlet be reporting this?
It's not true.
That number comes from a gun control advocacy group — Everytown for Gun Safety — which arrived at 18 only by shoving everything it possibly could into the category of "school shooting."
The simplest check of its list shows how misleading the group is being. 
Read the rest of the IBD editorial HERE.

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