The liberal media are all for live fact-checks and dishing out Pinocchios when they’re targeting conservatives, but their obsessive desire to nitpick and say “It’s accurate, but…” goes right out the window when it’s for their agenda. This was the case on Wednesday’s CBS Mornings when they pushed a dubious “gun violence” study from the Kaiser Family Foundation that wrapped firearm accidents, suicides, and defensive uses together with mass shootings and crime for an anti-gun rights message.
“A shocking new survey reveals just how widespread gun violence is in this country. Just listen to these numbers,” co-anchor and Obama’s vacation pal Gayle King demanded of viewers, “early one in five adults, one in five, say they have had a family member killed with a gun.”
But according to the “key findings” of the study, that number also includes people who have committed suicide, something any honest observer wouldn’t think should be included under a banner that conjures images of mass shootings and gang shootouts. “One in five (21%) say they have personally been threatened with a gun, a similar share (19%) say a family member was killed by a gun (including death by suicide),” the study writers said.
Historically, roughly 65 percent of gun deaths in America are suicides but KFF uses outlier data from 2020-2021 to claim “about half of deaths (55%) in the U.S. involving guns are suicides.” Meanwhile, we saw crime start to rise during that same time.
“KFF found that 54 percent of adults said they have or a family member has experienced a gun-related incident such as being threatened with a gun or having a family member killed by a gun, including by suicide,” CBS reporter Nikki Battiste later admitted.
Battiste inadvertently revealed that the point of the study was to cram as many incidents involving guns into the definition of “gun violence” as possible. The key piece of evidence was the fact one of the authors, Ashley Kirzinger, considers her sister’s accidental incident as included (click “expand”):
BATTISTE: Ashley Kirzinger was one of the survey’s lead authors. To her it's personal.
KIRZINGER: My sister was accidentally shot in the back. So thankful that she survived. But I can tell you firsthand it's impacted my family.
BATTISTE: Hers and so many others from mass shootings at concerts, movie theaters, places of worship, supermarkets, schools, and inside the workplace. It's a toll that keeps mounting.
(…)
KIRZINGER: I think a lot of attention is being paid to victims immediately following the shooting, but I think what the survey shows is that there is a long tale that follows these victims and their families.
Kirzinger admitted her sister was “accidentally shot” but no further detail of the incident was shared, so we don’t know the context of what happened. And again, something that was admittedly accidental really shouldn’t be rolled into mass shootings and used to crack down on other law-abiding gun owners.
Under the same question where people were asked about being threatened with a gun (noted above), the survey also asked respondents if they’ve ever “shot a gun in self-defense” (4%) and if they’ve “been injured by a gun.” The latter had no accompanying definition so it could be interrupted broadly, which can skew the results because there are other ways to get injured by a gun than just being shot (like getting hit/burned by hot brass while firing or getting caught by moving parts).
At the top of the segment, King also noted that, according to the survey, “84 percent of adults say they have taken at least one precaution to try to protect themselves or their families from gun violence.” Battiste expanded those precautionary steps which included avoiding “religious services or celebrations” (15%), “changed or considered changing their child's school” (20%), and “avoided large crowds” (35).
What CBS refused to mention was that the survey also found that 29 percent “purchased a gun” as a precaution and 41 percent “attended a gun safety class or practiced shooting.” That doesn’t exactly sound like people who want gun rights taken away.
CBS’s dishonesty in the name of curtailing gun rights was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Progressive and Verizon. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Mornings
April 12, 2023
7:07:04 a.m. EasternGAYLE KING: A shocking new survey reveals just how widespread gun violence is in this country. Just listen to these numbers -- nearly one in five adults, one in five, say they have had a family member killed with a gun. That’s according to a survey from KFF. For black Americans, that statistic is even worse -- one in three. And 84 percent of adults say they have taken at least one precaution to try to protect themselves or their families from gun violence. And that is not the only disturbing number in this survey. There is more. Nikki Battiste has the details.
[Cuts to video]
JASON SMITH (Louisville trauma surgeon): There's only so many times you can walk into a room and tell someone they're not coming home tomorrow. And it just breaks your heart.
NIKKI BATTISTE: Louisville trauma surgeon Jason Smith says he has seen and had enough.
SMITH: I'm weary.
BATTISTE: He's not the only one seeing the effects of gun violence firsthand. In a new survey on the impact of gun violence, KFF found that 54 percent of adults said they have or a family member has experienced a gun-related incident such as being threatened with a gun or having a family member killed by a gun, including by suicide.
Ashley Kirzinger was one of the survey’s lead authors. To her it's personal.
ASHLEY KIRZINGER (Kaiser Family Foundation researcher): My sister was accidentally shot in the back. So thankful that she survived. But I can tell you firsthand it's impacted my family.
BATTISTE: Hers and so many others from mass shootings at concerts, movie theaters, places of worship, supermarkets, schools, and inside the workplace. It's a toll that keeps mounting.
The survey found 15 percent of people have avoided religious services or celebrations. 20 percent have changed or considered changing their child's school. And 35 percent have avoided large crowds because of the possibility of gun violence.
KIRZINGER: I think a lot of attention is being paid to victims immediately following the shooting, but I think what the survey shows is that there is a long tale that follows these victims and their families.
[Cuts back to live]
BATTISTE: The survey also showed gun violence disproportionately affects people of color, and safe gun storage is also an issue. According to the results, nearly half of parents say they have a gun in their home, and about one-third of those firearms are either loaded or stored in an unlocked location.
So, this is a really important reminder, if you do own a firearm, particularly if you have children, store them safely.
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS: Yeah. Because you know, Kaiser Family Foundation reports that gun violence is now the number-one cause of death for teens and for children in this country, surpassing motor vehicle deaths.
BATTISTE: Yes. And that's relatively new.
TONY DOKOUPIL: And for other countries, you know, they also have issues with mental health, they have issues with crime that we struggle with also. But they're no more than fifth in terms of cause of death among children. So, something is different with what's happening here and then compared to all our peers around the world.
BATTISTE: Yes. And a reminder, we hear about mass shootings on the news, but gun violence is affecting so many people every day. And once it affects your family, it affects you for a long time.
KING: Like she said, it has a very long tale. We're not really talking about Nashville the way we used to. They're still grieving there. They’re still grieving in Uvalde. They’re still grieving in Buffalo. And we go on to the next thing. It's not right, and it's extremely frustrating.
