Biden Repeats False Claim that Guns Are No. 1 Killer of Children

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden again made the false claim that guns are the number one killer of children in America.

This is at least the third time Biden has made the claim in less than a year, and the claim has been false each time.

He first made the claim on June 2, 2022, in reaction to a FOX News report on Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) figures claiming 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.

Breitbart News noted that the figures Biden quoted counted people of voting age — 18 and 19-year-olds — as “children.” Breitbart was able to do a custom search on the CDC numbers limiting the category of children to those 0-17, i.e., those 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 News found that even when the category for children is kept at 0-19 years of age, those categorized as children are 27 times more likely to die in an accidental car death than from an accidental gun death.

On April 17, 2023, Biden reiterated his false claim about guns being the leading killer of children in America:

Since Biden’s June 2, 2022, claim that guns were the number one killer of children, former president Barack Obama, pro-gun control actor Billy Porter, pro-gun control actress Alyssa Milano, film director Scott Derrickson, and many others have repeated it. Breitbart News has fact-checked them along way and the claim remains false.

Despite the fact checks debunking the claim, Biden made the blunder again on May 24, 2023, and coupled it with a push to “ban AR-15-style firearms and other assault weapons, and high-capacity magazines.”

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 and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. 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.