On Wednesday, the Biden White House posted the demonstrably false claim that “guns are the number one killer of children.”
The White House posted:
Guns are the number one killer of children in America.
Our Administration continues to do everything we can to end gun violence and save lives. pic.twitter.com/7xmvFNPhOW
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 5, 2024
Breitbart News showed this claim to be false when President Joe Biden first made it on June 2, 2022. Breitbart News dug into the data and found that 18- and 19-year-olds (i.e., people of voting age) had to be counted as children in order for his claim to be accurate. But 18- and 19-year-olds are not children, and therefore, Biden’s claim was false, just as the White House’s current claim is false.
A May 26, 2022, FOX News report noted that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) figures show firearm-related deaths of people ages 0-19 totaled 4,368 in 2020, while motor vehicle deaths for the same age range totaled 4,036. This gave rise to gun control groups claiming more children die from guns than in car accidents. However, they missed the age range, which, as reported, included 18- and 19-year-olds.
Breitbart News did a custom search on the CDC numbers and limited the category of “children” to those 0-17 (i.e., individuals below voting age) and the data completely flipped. The number of firearm-related deaths for children aged 0-17 was 2,281 in 2020, while the number of motor vehicle deaths for the same ages was 2,503.
Moreover, Breitbart found that even in the expanded age range of 0-19, CDC numbers show unintentional motor vehicle deaths were 27 times higher than unintentional firearm-related deaths.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a pro-staffer for Pulsar Night Vision, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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