Bernie Sanders can’t seem to get his facts straight on the issue of guns.
Just last week, he repeated the bogus claim that by mid-February, there had already been eighteen school shootings in America. The figure originated with Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit co-founded by Michael Bloomberg that has a long history of inflating their statistics. In the case of the “18 school shootings” stat, their definition of “school shooting” was so vague as to include a pellet gun damaging a school window.
The Washington Post’s John Woodrow Cox and Steven Rich noted that:
“Just five of Everytown’s 18 school shootings listed for 2018 happened during school hours and resulted in any physical injury. Another three appeared to be intentional shootings but didn’t hurt anyone. Two more involved guns — one carried by a school police officer and the other by a licensed peace officer who ran a college club — that were unintentionally fired and, again, led to no injuries. At least seven of Everytown’s 18 shootings took place outside normal school hours.”
Bernie was at least honest enough to issue a correction:
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 16, 2018
But he didn’t stick to the facts for long, this time going as far as to claim that nearly half of all guns in America are sold without a background check.
According to Rare, the Vermont lawmaker told Chuck Todd: “I am on record and have been for a very long time in saying we have got to significantly tighten up the background checks. We have to end the absurdity of the gun show loophole. 40 percent of the guns in this country are sold without any background checks.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaFh17y19js
From the Rare report:
But the political watchdog site, FactCheck.org, says that Sanders numbers don’t add up. The “40 percent” statistic that the senator is quoting refers to a 24-year-old study. Instead, the most recent data points to the conclusion that “22 percent of U.S. gun owners who acquired a firearm within the past two years did so without a background check.” And the percentage of guns actually purchased (as opposed to inherited to gifted) without a background check is even lower — something like 13 percent.
Granted, that’s still a large chunk of sales that background checks need to be expanded for, but the figure Bernie cited was three times larger than 13 percent. Would it kill the pro-gun control side to get their facts straight, just for once?
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