August 29, 2018

Gov’t Grossly Inflates Stats on School Shootings

NPR “found that more than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened.”

We’re shocked — shocked — to note that the Leftmedia hyperventilation about the epidemic of school shootings is based on false information. Some might call it “fake news.”

Don’t take our word for it. After the U.S. Education Department released figures this spring indicating that “nearly 240 schools … reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting” in the 2015-2016 school year, National Public Radio spent three months painstakingly trying to corroborate that report. NPR “reached out to every one of those schools repeatedly over the course of three months and found that more than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened.” In fact, NPR confirmed just 11 incidents, while 161 schools reported no such incident. Many school leaders “had little idea of how shootings got recorded for their schools.”

Granted, 240 schools represent just 0.2% of the nation’s 96,000 schools, and the incorrect data was due to simple human error in self-reporting by those schools, but such reporting is consequential when it comes to public policy. NPR explains:

This confusion comes at a time when the need for clear data on school violence has never been more pressing. Students around the country are heading back to school this month under a cloud of fear stemming from the most recent mass shootings in Parkland, [Florida], and Santa Fe, Texas.

At least 53 new school safety laws were passed in states in 2018. Districts are spending millions of dollars to “harden” schools with new security measures and equipment. A blue-ribbon federal school safety commission led by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is holding public events around the country, including one in Alabama Tuesday. Children are spending class time on active-shooter drills and their parents are buying bulletproof backpacks.

Back in February, we noted another study debunking the idea of an epidemic of school shootings. In fact, there are one-quarter as many school-shooting deaths now as in the early 1990s.

None of this is to minimize a single death at the hands of either a willful murderer or an accidental trigger-puller. Nor is it a reason to ignore behavioral red flags (as officials did in Parkland) or to ease up on school security. But when students are being used as pawns in a larger and strategic push for gun control, these numbers matter. And the Education Department’s numbers were roughly triple the already wildly exaggerated statistics of the anti-Second Amendment group Everytown for Gun Safety. Kudos to NPR for doing real journalism to correct the record.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.