This time, Everytown's fake statistic was so misleading that the Washington Post felt compelled to publish a fact-check article unsubtly titled, "No, there haven't been 18 school shootings in 2018. That number is flat wrong." As the Post points out, only five of the 18 supposed "school shootings" actually occurred during shool hours and resulted in any injuries.
One of the most egregious of the supposed school shootings involved a man who shot himself in a car parked at an elementary school that "had been closed for seven months." After being called out for that particularly absurd example, Everytown said it's going to remove that one from its list. But the larger question remains: Five school shootings is horrific enough — why does Everytown feel the need to inflate the number with bogus examples?
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As the Post's fact-check suggests, this isn't the first time they've caught Everytown trying to mislead the public on the issue of mass shootings. They also nailed Everytown back in 2015 about its notorious conflation of vastly different gun-related situations, including "attempted and committed suicides, accidental discharges, armed robberies, gang fights, shootings resulting from altercations, and shootings similar to the rampages at Sandy Hook or in Charleston, where a person intends to kill multiple people."
'Flat Wrong': Washington Post Torches Much-Cited School Shooting Statistic
One of the most egregious of the supposed school shootings involved a man who shot himself in a car parked at an elementary school that "had been closed for seven months." After being called out for that particularly absurd example, Everytown said it's going to remove that one from its list. But the larger question remains: Five school shootings is horrific enough — why does Everytown feel the need to inflate the number with bogus examples?
[clip]
As the Post's fact-check suggests, this isn't the first time they've caught Everytown trying to mislead the public on the issue of mass shootings. They also nailed Everytown back in 2015 about its notorious conflation of vastly different gun-related situations, including "attempted and committed suicides, accidental discharges, armed robberies, gang fights, shootings resulting from altercations, and shootings similar to the rampages at Sandy Hook or in Charleston, where a person intends to kill multiple people."
'Flat Wrong': Washington Post Torches Much-Cited School Shooting Statistic
