FACT CHECK: Jennifer Lawrence Falsely Claims ‘Guns Are the Number-One Cause of Death for Children in the U.S.’

CLAIM: Actress Jennifer Lawrence pushed gun control in a Vogue interview and told the magazine that guns are the “Number One” killer of children in the United States.

VERDICT: False. The widely-shared but misleading CDC statistic includes cause-of-death data for 18- and 19-year-olds in addition to minors.

Lawrence told Vogue in an interview for her October cover story, “Guns are the number-one cause of death for children in the United States.”

Her claim has been a common one among leftists in 2022. It is a claim that became popular after a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was widely reported in late May of this year.

For example, FOX News ran a story titled, “Guns now the leading cause of death for US children, per CDC.” The story noted that 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.

During a June 2, 2022, primetime speech, President Joe Biden reacted to the CDC figures by claiming: “Guns are the number one killer of children.”

However, Breitbart News pointed out that if you do a custom search on the CDC website, adjusting the numbers so that you are limiting the category of “children” to the ages 0-17, i.e., individuals that are actually minors, then the data completely flips.

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 showed that even if you keep the search parameters at ages 0-19 years of age on the CDC website, a search shows that unintentional car deaths among children were 27 times higher than unintentional gun deaths among the same age group.

In summary, Lawrence’s claim is false, just as Biden’s claim was false.

The actress accused gun rights advocates of sacrificing children for their own selfish concerns:

And how on earth can anyone have children and not want to restrict access to guns, she wanted to know. “I’m raising a little boy who is going to go to school one day. Guns are the number-one cause of death for children in the United States. And people are still voting for politicians who receive money from the NRA. It blows my mind. I mean if Sandy Hook didn’t change anything? We as a nation just went, Okay! We are allowing our children to lay down their lives for our right to a second amendment that was written over 200 years ago.”

Lawrence told the magazine she sends text-message rants to her conservative family members in Kentucky over political issues such as abortion and guns, saying, “I can’t fuck with people who aren’t political anymore. You live in the United States of America. You have to be political. It’s too dire. Politics are killing people.”

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. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.