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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis Gun Nut Says Most School Shootings Aren’t Real
The conservative reporter claims to have debunked a report showing the staggering number of school shootings in America. But Johnsons semantic gymnastics cant change the facts.Gun nuts could barely contain their glee when former Daily Caller reporter Charles Johnson known for his accuracy and attention to detail, went on a Twitter truth quest to debunk school shooting statistics published this week by Everytown, a gun-control advocacy group.
Everytowns most recent report shows 74 school shootings since the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown. The umbrella group, made up of former New York mayor Michael Bloombergs Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Shannon Watts Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, is clear about how they arrive at that tally: they count school shootings as anytime a gun goes off inside a school building or grounds. But Johnson, intrepid journalist that he is, was skeptical. In what may be the most tortuous sentence ever constructed, he wrote, Its not a school shooting when someone goes and shoots a specific person on campus. Its a shooting that happens to take place at school.
CNN took the bait and dissected Everytowns list to come to their own count, settling on 15 school shootings, defined as a minor or adult actively shooting inside or near a school.
The crux of Johnsons and now CNNs position is that shootings that arise from arguments, or gang violence, or suicides, arent, as Johnson put it, mass school shootings and shouldn't be treated as such. Its important to note the only person using the word mass is Johnson. Everytown says that they document as many school shootings as they see reported in the media.
So Johnson debunked something that Everytown never claimed. But he was proving a point here: that some school shootings count and others dont. In Johsons view, most of the incidents where guns have gone off inside a school are fakei.e., they dont count as school shootings.
So how many students have to die before it counts as a school shooting? Is a school with students in gangs an automatic disqualification? Lets look at a few and figure out Johnsons twisted logic together.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/12/debunking-charles-johnson-s-ridiculous-school-shooting-denial.html
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This Gun Nut Says Most School Shootings Aren’t Real (Original Post)
doxydad
Jun 2014
OP
'It wasn't an airliner that hit the Pentagon' 'Jesus didn't exist' 'There was no moon landing'
onehandle
Jun 2014
#1
onehandle
(51,122 posts)1. 'It wasn't an airliner that hit the Pentagon' 'Jesus didn't exist' 'There was no moon landing'
An idiot perverting the facts in their favor is not debunking.
hlthe2b
(102,357 posts)2. Indeed, gunners: "So how many students have to die before it counts as a “school shooting”?
It is this callous disregard for life that is going to cost the extremist gun movement in the end. No sympathy for any loss of life, but only for themselves in fear of some inconvenience that even the mildest gun regulations might bring.
GeorgeGist
(25,323 posts)3. Well they might reason ...
[font size =5]Bengahzi! [/font size]