Multiple News Organizations Busted for Publishing Fake News on Children and Guns
Kevin Felts 06.28.17
A recent “study” making the rounds of various news organizations and widely trumpeted in the anti-gun press claimed that an eye-popping 4.2% of children age 0 to 17 have “witnessed a shooting in the past year.” If that 4.2% number, which amounts to millions of children, sounds impossibly high, that’s because it is.
A reader from Plano Texas contacted the Dallas News and asked about the study.
Does it really sound believable that one kid out of every 24 has witnessed a shooting in the last year? I think not, unless it was on TV, in a movie, or in a video game. In that case it would probably be more like 100 percent.
After doing their own research, the Dallas news discovered the actual question from the study was,
At any time in (your child’s/your) life, (was your child/were you) in any place in real life where (he/she/you) could see or hear people being shot, bombs going off, or street riots?
The question was not about in the past year, but in your life, or the life of your child. Also, the question was not about shooting specifically, but rather “see or hear people being shot, bombs going off, or street riots.”
My hat goes off to the Dallas News for delving into the study to get to the bottom of the issue.
I have to wonder, who changed the original question to something else? Why were the references to adults removed, and only children listed? Why were bombs and riots removed and only shootings listed?
It is situations like this that make people question the agenda of people who publish such studies. Why reword, edit, and omit certain parts of the study? Why not publish the study as-is and let people make up their own mind?
