CNN Uses Misleading Data to Claim over 100 Mass Shootings in 2023

CNN used misleading data from the Gun Violence Archive to claim Monday “the U.S. has surpassed 100 mass shootings in 2023.”

CNN noted, “America reached the grim number by the first week of March.”

Both CNN and the Gun Violence Archive departed from the standard definition for mass shootings, which the Rand Corporation observed as being derived from the FBI’s 1980s definition of a “mass murderer” of an individual who “kills four or more people in a single incident (not including himself).”

But for CNN and the Gun Violence Archive, an incident with no fatalities is still a mass shooting. This means labels like drive-by shootings, gang hits, homicides, double homicides, are renamed mass shootings and counted as such. This enables CNN to claim over 100 mass shootings already in 2023.

Moreover, on November 21, 2022, Breitbart News pointed out Newsmax likewise cited figures from the Gun Violence Archive and claimed the U.S. had witnessed over 600 mass shootings in 2022.

On November 24, 2022,  Breitbart News observed The Hill relied on Gun Violence Archive data to claim 609 mass shootings had occurred up to that point in 2022 alone.

As of right now, the Gun Violence Archive’s data showing over 100 mass shootings in 2023 contains approximately 40 incidents in which there were no fatalities, roughly 25 incidents in which there was one fatality, and around 18 incidents in which there were two fatalities.

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 PhD 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.