Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

Anti-gun Press Parrots Misleading Stats and Creates Outright Falsehoods

Monday, May 9, 2022

Anti-gun Press Parrots Misleading Stats and Creates Outright Falsehoods

As NRA-ILA recently pointed out, gun control researchers and their establishment press lapdogs propagate misleading science” to advance their political agenda. Sometimes this involves sophisticated statistical modeling, other times it involves the crude mischaracterization of data. The anti-gun advocateslongest-running version of the latter involves conflating firearm-related deaths among children and those among juveniles and young adults.

This is how it works: Step one, acquire statistics on firearm-related deaths among children ages 1-14. Step two, combine that relatively low number with the far greater number of firearm-related deaths involving juveniles and young adults ages 15-19, or even ages 15-24. Step three, present the resulting data as the shocking number of children” (ages 1-19 or 1-24) who are subjected to gun violence” each day/week/month/year. Step four, use the disingenuous statistic to advocate for pre-determined gun control policies.

Upon the release of the CDCs 2020 fatal injury data, gun controllers dredged up this tactic once again. As with overall violent crime, firearm-related violence increased in 2020 alongside the conscious implementation of soft-on-crime criminal justice policies. Sadly, younger people were no exception to this increase.

However, anti-gun researchers and the media abused the CDCs data to create misleading headlines that blared Guns were leading cause of death among children, teens in 2020, research says,” “Guns Became the Leading Cause of Death for American Children and Teens in 2020,” and Firearms surpass motor vehicles as leading cause of death among kids, UM researchers say.”

When examining injuries to actual children or kids, ages 1-14, firearm-related injuries are not the leading causes of death and are not higher than motor vehicle deaths. The number of motor vehicle deaths in this age group is more than 60-percent higher than firearm-related deaths. Moreover, when examining the most generous reasonable definition of children,” those ages 1-17, motor vehicle deaths are still higher than firearm-related deaths.

This does shift when examining those ages 15-19. An overwhelming 83-percent of the firearm-related deaths that occur in the 1-19 age group happen among the juveniles and young adults ages 15-19. This disparity shouldnt be surprising. The 15-19 cohort is far more often engaged in the type of street crime that can give rise to firearm-related violence and that many jurisdictions have decided to address in a more lenient manner in recent years. The conflation of this age group with actual children is even more absurd when one considers that in the vast majority of jurisdictions those 15 and older can be prosecuted as adults.

As if this manipulation of data for political purposes wasnt enough, some researchers have gone further. In some cases, anti-gun academics and the media will lump actual children (ages 1-14) in with juveniles and young adults ages 15-24 to create even more misleading statistics.

On April 21, the New England Journal of Medicine published an item by David Hemenway and others, titled, Crossing Lines — A Change in the Leading Cause of Death among U.S. Children.” As previously noted, firearm-related injuries are not the leading cause of death in actual children (ages 1-14) or even children” under the most generous definition of the term (ages 1-17). Hemenway is a longtime anti-gun researcher at the Harvard Injury Control Research Center.

The actual text of the NEJM item showed how this lurid headline was concocted. The article stated,

Injuries are the most common cause of death among children, adolescents, and young adults between 1 and 24 years of age in the United States; indeed, injuries are responsible for more deaths among children and adolescents than all other causes combined.

So the article isnt about children at all, but rather all those ages 1-24. Once again, actual children were lumped in with juveniles and young adults, who obviously have a very different risk profile, in order to contrive a sensational statistic.

This is bad enough, but whether through incompetence or deliberate deceit, some in the media managed to make this misleading statistic into an outright falsehood.

On April 24, USA Today published a piece titled Guns were leading cause of death among children, teens in 2020, research says.” The item stated, Researchers from the University of Michigan noted that an alarming number of the deaths, 10,186 (22.5%), were of people ages 1 to 19.” In addition to citing the UM researchers, the author linked to an article published on the universitys website.

Nowhere in the UM article did that statistic appear. In fact, the article specifically stated that less than half that number of individuals ages 1-19 died of firearm-related injuries in 2020.

So, how could a reporter get the number so wrong? Well, the number of firearm-related deaths he claimed were for those ages 1-19 is actually the number of firearm-related deaths for those ages 1-24. Moreover, it is the number cited for firearm-related deaths for those ages 1-24 in the April NEJM item.

USA today wasnt the only media outlet to promote this complete nonsense as fact. Seattles KCPQ and Lansing, Michigans WILX also misinformed the public with this bogus claim.

To recap:

  1. In order to promote their gun control agenda, anti-gun researchers conflated firearm-related deaths among actual children (ages 1-14) with those among juveniles and young adults ages 15-19 to overstate the number of “children” involved in firearm-related violence.
  2. Even more disingenuous researchers decided to juice this misleading statistic further by adding data from an additional five years of adulthood, thus conflating firearm-related deaths among actual children (ages 1-14) with those of juveniles and young adults ages 15-24.
  3. In their eagerness to promote gun control propaganda, the anti-gun press accidentally or willfully mixed up the misleading ages 1-19 firearm-related death statistic with the even more misleading ages 1-24 statistic. Media outlets reported the ages 1-24 firearm-related death total as the ages 1-19 total, overstating the number of firearm-related deaths among those ages 1-19 by more than 100 percent.

Someone call the Disinformation Governance Board!

IN THIS ARTICLE
Research Bias
TRENDING NOW
Baltimore Gets Serious on Crime Control, and the Results Speak for Themselves

News  

Monday, July 14, 2025

Baltimore Gets Serious on Crime Control, and the Results Speak for Themselves

As the mid-year mark of 2025 hits, a promising report on crime trends has come out of the City of Baltimore. Surprising news at first glance until you dig deeper into the policy direction the ...

U.K. Moves to Legally De-suppress Suppressors

News  

Monday, July 14, 2025

U.K. Moves to Legally De-suppress Suppressors

On July 4th, President Donald Trump signed into law his “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which included a provision that eliminated the tax stamp fee of $200, but did not deregulate suppressors under the National Firearms ...

President Trump Supports Hunting and Resource Protection with Executive Actions

News  

Monday, July 14, 2025

President Trump Supports Hunting and Resource Protection with Executive Actions

Just as the United States was preparing to celebrate 249 beautiful years, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on July 3rd establishing the “Make America Beautiful Again" Commission supporting hunters, outdoorsmen, and outdoor recreationists by prioritizing the ...

Legacy Media Finally Acknowledges Politization of Public Health

News  

Monday, July 14, 2025

Legacy Media Finally Acknowledges Politization of Public Health

It appears the editors of The Atlantic are finally willing to entertain an idea that has long been obvious to gun rights supporters.

House Annual Appropriations Process Update

News  

Monday, July 14, 2025

House Annual Appropriations Process Update

As the House Appropriations Committee is putting together legislation to fund the government, NRA-ILA has worked closely with policy makers to ensure several long-standing priorities for gun owners were included in the underlying bills.

U.S. House Passes Reconciliation Bill, Removing Suppressors from the National Firearms Act

News  

Second Amendment  

Thursday, May 22, 2025

U.S. House Passes Reconciliation Bill, Removing Suppressors from the National Firearms Act

Earlier today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R.1 the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included Section 2 of the Hearing Protection Act, completely removing suppressors from the National Firearms Act (NFA).

DOJ Declines to Seek Supreme Court Review of Decision Striking Down Federal Laws Prohibiting FFLs From Selling Handguns to 18-to-20-Year-Olds

Thursday, July 10, 2025

DOJ Declines to Seek Supreme Court Review of Decision Striking Down Federal Laws Prohibiting FFLs From Selling Handguns to 18-to-20-Year-Olds

In Reese v. ATF, the Fifth Circuit held that 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(b)(1) and (c)(1)—which together forbid Federal Firearms Licensees from selling handguns to 18-to-20-year-olds—violate the Second Amendment.

Florida: Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday Signed by Governor

Monday, July 7, 2025

Florida: Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday Signed by Governor

Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed the Florida Budget for Fiscal Year 2025–2026, which includes a Second Amendment sales tax holiday from September 8 through December 31, 2025. The NRA is thankful for Governor DeSantis’ strong ...

NRA-ILA July 2025 Litigation Update

Thursday, July 10, 2025

NRA-ILA July 2025 Litigation Update

In the second quarter of 2025, the National Rifle Association filed two cert petitions in the U.S. Supreme Court and five amicus briefs, while continuing to litigate dozens of ongoing lawsuits across the country.

Maine: Lawmakers Call for Anti-2A Progressive Professor to Be Fired

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Maine: Lawmakers Call for Anti-2A Progressive Professor to Be Fired

In case you missed the media firestorm last week, a progressive professor at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor, Maine, has come under fire for her emails belittling a student for her religious beliefs and views ...

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.