Everytown for Gun Safety has released a “study” claiming that one in 11 online gun shoppers in Nevada has a criminal record. The Las Vegas Review-Journal quoted Everytown’s “Research Director,” Ted Alcorn, as saying, “We wanted to ensure that we’re using the gun sale ads as a proxy for gun commerce. You can infer a lot by looking at the ads.”
In truth, Alcorn can do nothing of the sort. After boasting of the man-hours and technology the group used to monitor ads on four websites, Alcorn could only conclude that high volumes from a small number of sellers “might mean they are unlicensed dealers.”
Everytown then posted 19 sham ads and found less than 9 percent of respondents had a criminal record. In a similar incident in Vermont, Everytown was forced to admit massive flaws in methodology. Neither “study” confirmed even one illegal gun sale.
These tactics remind us that Everytown is a political advocacy organization funded by a gun-ban billionaire, not an independent, unbiased research firm.
