Fact Check: ‘Doctor Strange’ Director Peddles Misleading Talking Point Guns Number One Killer of Children

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AWR Hawkins

CLAIM: Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson reacted to the Allen, Texas, mall shooting by claiming guns are “the number one cause of death” for children.

VERDICT: False.

Derrickson’s claim has been made numerous leftist politicians, including President Biden and former president Barack Obama, as well as news outlets like FOX News and pro-gun control actors and actresses like Billy Porter and Alyssa Milano.

The claim is based on report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in May of 2022. On the surface, the report appeared to indicate guns were the number killer of children. However, Breitbart News dug into the specifics and found that the CDC report counted people of voting age–18 and 19 year-olds–as children. By so doing, the CDC numbers showed firearm-related deaths of children ages 0-19 totaled 4,368 in 2020, while motor vehicle deaths for the same age range totaled 4,036.

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Breitbart News went onto the CDC webpage and adjusted the age range, leaving people of voting age out of the children category. With that adjustment made, and the age range set at 0-17, the number of firearm-related deaths for children 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.

Derrickson’s claim is false.

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. AWR Hawkins 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

 

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