UPDATE, 7:02 p.m. Eastern: On the CBS Evening News, correspondent Don Dahler followed colleague Jeff Pegues in promoting the leftist, pro-gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety while reporting on the Florida school shooting without any of those labels or where they stood on the issue of the Second Amendment.
“What starts these events is always the subject of detective work, community second-guessing, and familial agonizing. Perhaps the biggest question: Why is this happening more frequently? This year, there have already been 18 school shootings. There were seven by this time last year,” Dahler began without any accreditation.
Dahler’s piece then flashed “Everytown for Gun Safety” on-screen as he continued with his own commentary:
Since 2013, the number of school shootings has steadily risen, with the sole exception being 2016, when there were only 48. Only — as if that was in any way acceptable or normal. As a sign of the times, more schools now prepare their students for gun violence. Two-thirds of school districts report conducting active-shooter drills, even though only 19 states require them.
Dahler then may have unintentionally discredited in Everytown’s statistical breakdown when he ended his piece by telling anchor Jeff Glor that “[s]ome are accidental or suicide, where the only victim was the shooter.”
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During CBS’s live coverage of the deadly school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, Homeland Security correspondent Jeff Pegues showed his liberal bias by peddling dubious statistics from the far-left gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety without vetting their credibility or citing their leftist tilt.
Pegues was speaking to CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor when he lamented “how common, sadly, these shooting shootings” when he declared that “one of our producers handed me a list of all the school shootings just this year.”
He noted that we’re almost halfway through February before claiming “already this year 17 school shootings, that according to a group called Everytown, which monitors these kinds of things and keeps of them.”
What an pedestrian and unsurprising explanation. A liberal journalist receives word from a liberal organization, but passes it off without an ideological label or some reassuring description. Pegues had an opportunity to clarify, but he kept going with Everytown’s spin:
Now, some of them — some of those 17 shootings involve incidents where a gun was fired but no one was injured. But just think about that. 17 already this year and we’re a month and a half into the new year. Now, since 2013, according to Everytown there have been nearly 300 school shootings in America and so that's an average about — of about one per week. So when I said earlier that law enforcement has become familiar with these types of incidents, that — that is certainly the case.
At best, Everytown’s statistics are dubious and outright lies at worst. Washington Free Beacon staff writer and former MRC blogger Stephen Gutowski wrote a January 25 piece exposing the Michael Bloomberg-backed group’s “misleading school shooting count”:
Everytown for Gun Safety uses its own definition based on what it said is "expert advice and common sense," which the gun-control group claims is "straightforward, fair, and comprehensive." The group said it counts "any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds."
This broad definition places two separate suicides, a January 9 incident where a man shot a BB gun at a bus window resulting in no injuries; a January 10 incident where a student in a criminal justice club accidentally shot a peace officer's real gun at a target on a classroom wall instead of a training gun resulting in no injuries; a January 9 incident where gun shots were fired from somewhere outside of Cal State San Bernardino, which struck a building on campus without injuries; and other incidents next to the murder of a Winston-Salem State University student at a nightclub on the Wake Forest University campus, the January 22 shooting of a 15-year-old at a Dallas-area high school, and Tuesday's Marshall County High School shooting which left 2 dead and 18 others injured.
In its explanation of its count, Everytown includes an open call for new gun-control measures as a result of the number of school shootings it claims occur each year in the United States.
While Pegues was casually promoting this far-left group, ABC was ghoulishly linking the shooting to the Trump administration’s ongoing scandal involving former aide Rob Porter and others were complaining about the press briefing being canceled due to the shooting.
To see the relevant transcript from February 14's CBS Evening News with Jeff Glor, click “expand.”
CBS Evening News with Jeff Glor
February 14, 2018
6:40 p.m. Eastern
DON DAHLER: What starts these events is always the subject of detective work, community second-guessing, and familial agonizing. Perhaps the biggest question: Why is this happening more frequently? This year, there have already been 18 school shootings. There were seven by this time last year. Since 2013, the number of school shootings has steadily risen, with the sole exception being 2016, when there were only 48. Only — as if that was in any way acceptable or normal. ,As a sign of the times, more schools now prepare their students for gun violence. Two-thirds of school districts report conducting active-shooter drills, even though only 19 states require them.
(....)
6:41 p.m. Eastern
DAHLER: Researchers say school shootings are happening at a rate of one a week. Some are accidental or suicide, where the only victim was the shooter.
To see the relevant transcript from the CBS News Special Report on February 14, click “expand.”
CBS News Special Report
February 14, 2018
3:33 p.m. Eastern
JEFF PEGUES: You know, I was talking earlier, Jeff, about how common, sadly, these shooting shootings and one of our producers handed me a list of all the school shootings just this year. So, we’re mid-February and already this year 17 school shootings, that according to a group called Everytown, which monitors these kinds of things and keeps of them. Now, some of them — some of those 17 shootings involve incidents where a gun was fired but no one was injured. But just think about that. 17 already this year and we’re a month and a half into the new year. Now, since 2013, according to Everytown there have been nearly 300 school shootings in America and so that's an average about — of about one per week. So when I said earlier that law enforcement has become familiar with these types of incidents, that — that is certainly the case. You see these images as disturbing as they are, look at the way first responders are operating, trying to save lives. They set up these areas where they can treat people as quickly as possible and, you know, some of these cases you don't have time or the resources to get these victims to hospitals. You have to treat them right there on the scene and that's what we're seeing happening right now. So there are several things happening and it looks really chaotic because do you know what? That's what this is. This is one of those incidents where police have very little control over what is happening but they attempt to take control by bringing these resources, bringing in law enforcement as much as they possibly can but first and foremost, taking down the person who was doing this.
