Michael Bloomberg Ads Nearly Double Child Gun Death Figures by Including Adult Teenagers

Democrat presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg claims 2,900 children are killed with guns each year without clarifying that roughly 1,400 of those deaths are 18- to 19-year-olds.

In other words, anyone under the age of 20 is counted as a child, which allows the inclusion of homicides from gang activities and street crime to be presented in the same column as the accidental death of a seven-year-old.

The Bloomberg 2020 campaign site says, “More than 36,000 are killed with guns in the U.S. each year. 2,900 are children.”

FactCheck.org investigated Bloomberg’s “2,900 children” claim, which is also contained in various Bloomberg ads, and noted that when 18- and 19-year-olds are removed from the equation, the number of deaths drops “by nearly half.”

It should also be noted that the claim that “36,000 are killed with guns” can be misleading, inasmuch that readers may assume 36,000 homicides. In actuality, there are roughly 11,000 to 12,000 firearm-related homicides in the U.S. each year and approximately 500 to 600 accidental firearm deaths. The remaining 22,000+ deaths are suicides, which gun controllers often combine with homicide numbers and thereafter report a higher number of gun 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. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.