CNN Uses Wildly Deceptive School Shooting 'Facts' To Push for Gun Control
At this point in time, anti-gun Democrats should probably be sending bountiful gift baskets to liberal mainstream media reporters after any hint of a school-related shooting, as most of the news reports stemming from such incidents are blatantly being used to promote gun control talking points.
That’s exactly what happened on CNN in the wake of the May 7 shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch in Colorado that resulted in one fatality and several students injured.
Only one day after the shooting, CNN’s Brooke Baldwin decided to use an abundance of melodrama, combined with irrelevant and misleading statistics, to push obvious gun control propaganda in a 3-minute unsourced, shockingly deceptive segment.
As Baldwin glared at the camera without bothering to say a word for an added dose of dramatic effect, a variety of alarming statistics appeared on the screen, such as “35 U.S. School Shootings Since The Fall” and “336 School Shootings Since 2008.”
The last one read, “373,663 Killed By Gun Violence From 2007-2017.”
After that list of big, scary numbers, the segment then cut to a scene of distraught, crying mothers. Panic-inducing graphics on the screen read, “Children with their hands up… at school. Or clenched… to pray” and “Parents waiting to hear their child’s name called… or not.”
But as is often the case with the liberal media and school shootings, not only were Baldwin’s statistics ambiguous, some were outright false.
Ryan Saavedra at The Daily Wire, posted the Baldwin segment to Twitter, with some pertinent points:
CNN won't say where they got these "facts":
“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— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 14, 2019
Even the hard left rag we know as The New York Times recently reported that 111 “active shooter” incidents, as defined by the FBI, have occurred in schools since 1970. Baldwin’s numbers, which CNN claims are from the past 10 years alone, are triple that.
And what about that “35 U.S. School Shootings Since The Fall” number? Quite frankly I have no idea, because again, CNN failed to include a source. I’m not sure even the CNN producers know where that number originated.
Baldwin’s “373,663 Killed By Gun Violence From 2007-2017” stat is a number derived from the Centers for Disease Control but it has almost nothing to do with school shootings or “gun violence.” (Note: You’ll have to click “agree ” on that link and wait a few seconds for the data. Also, the CDC groups the numbers over two decades, but the numbers CNN is using are from the last 10 years, so we’ll have to do some math.)
That number, which spans from 2007-2017, is a total of five categories of firearms-related deaths, which include suicides, homicides, unintentional incidents, undetermined incidents and legal intervention/operations of war.
To call justified, officer-involved shootings and operations of war “gun violence” is not even close to accurate and quite frankly, absurd. The same goes for suicides, unknown and unintentional firearms-related incidents.
To break that exaggerated number down further, the only relevant category mentioned above that would contribute to “gun violence” would be homicides, which resulted in 134,224 deaths over the same time span, according to the CDC. (Again, you’ll have to click “agree” and wait a few seconds.)
Every unnecessary death is a tragedy, of course. But it’s important to remember that this is a nation of more than 300 million. Over the course of a decade, lots of things are going to go wrong, and millions of people are going to commit crimes. That doesn’t mean we should suspend the Bill of Rights.
Later on the same day as Baldwin’s piece, CNN’s Chris Cuomo ran a similar segment that was an obvious ploy to mislead and deceive a firearms-ignorant audience.
CNN knows its audience will accept just about any gun-related stats the network presents, and also understands that the heavily anti-gun crowd won’t bother digging down for the real facts surrounding the issue.
And, of course, it’s an opportune time to help Democrats push gun control legislation talking points.
Make no mistake — gun-related deaths of any kind are horrific, but especially so when they happen in schools. No responsible gun owner denies that.
However, it’s beyond irresponsible for CNN and other left-leaning mainstream media outlets to post frightening, exaggerated (and sometimes fake) news reports surrounding these events, as it does absolutely nothing to help tackle the real issues behind these tragic occurrences.
It’s no wonder President Donald Trump continues to label outlets like CNN as “fake news.” Because as it’s been proven once again, it’s often true.
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