The Washington Post Fact Checker just slapped House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with “Four Pinocchios” –the worst possible grade from the newspaper—for repeatedly using a fake statistic about the number of children and teens allegedly killed every day with firearms.
In reaction, the Second Amendment Foundation went after Pelosi, an anti-gun Democrat from San Francisco, noting, “Fact Checker Glenn Kessler plays no favorites, and when he slaps Pelosi with four ‘Pinocchios’ for repeatedly using a canard, she’s got it coming.”
According to the newspaper, Pelosi has repeatedly claimed that 100 people die every day from “gun violence,” and asserted that 47 of them are children and teens. But the Washington Post apparently did some math, noting that 60 percent of firearms-related deaths are suicides. The WaPo noted: “It seemed strange that so many children would be killing themselves with guns.” The newspaper checked data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and concluded Pelosi was way off base, yet she has repeated the false narrative.
The Washington Examiner reported Pelosi had used the fake statistic even in speeches and tweets. She claimed, “100 people die every day from gun violence — 47 of them children & teenagers…How many more must perish before [Mitch McConnell] will take action?”
SAF’s Alan Gottlieb weighed into the controversy as Pelosi was leading her majority Democrats toward an impeachment vote against President Donald Trump.
“If Pelosi perpetuates this lie about guns,” Gottlieb wondered in a prepared statement, “what else is she being dishonest about? This is the kind of deliberate misinformation that should attract extra scrutiny for anything she says, about guns, taxes, the economy or any other social issue.”
The WaPo Fact Checker recalled Pelosi has used the bogus statistic at least four times this year, in February, September and October. This was even after the newspaper contacted her office and reportedly a Pelosi aide claimed she had “misspoke.” That’s a lot of misspeaking.
The Washington Examiner bluntly stated, “we now know that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly and knowingly lied about the rates of child gun death to push an agenda.”
“What is truly alarming about this,” Gottlieb observed, putting the problem in perspective, “is that far too many people have accepted Pelosi’s falsehood as fact. She has fabricated a misleading and inflammatory argument in support of further restrictions on law-abiding gun owners and she was getting away with it until the Washington Post Fact Checker called her on it.”
As explained by Kessler in his Fact Checker column, the misleading statistic “was drawn from a study by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.” That’s the gun prohibition lobbying organization founded by and named for Jim and Sarah Brady following the assassination attempt on former President Ronald Reagan. The Brady Campaign allegedly averaged five years of gun-related data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But Pelosi and other congressional anti-gunners want to push all kinds of gun control schemes, and the only thing stopping them is a Republican-controlled Senate and the president.
“Speaker Pelosi and her anti-gun Democrat colleagues may think it’s okay to dupe the American public,” Gottlieb observed, “but we don’t. Creating a false narrative, and then acting on it, is a bad idea and really bad politics because eventually you’re going to get caught.”
