U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., earned a whopping four Pinocchios from The Washington Post for a whopper he told June 24 from the floor of the U.S. Senate: Since the Sandy Hook massacre, similar school shootings have occurred weekly.
Murphy quoted a “study” from Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety, which claims there has been one school shooting per week since December 2012. Everytown padded its total by counting every time a firearm was discharged at—or near—a school, including gang violence, suicides and accidental discharges; in one example, a couple shot a cat.
In giving Murphy maximum Pinocchios, the Post took a swipe at Everytown, too: “Lawmakers have a responsibility to check out the facts in the reports they use, especially ones that come from advocacy groups … lawmakers should rely more on official government statistics, such as from the FBI, rather than misleading metrics cobbled together by interest groups.”
