On Monday, CNN ran a fact-check regarding the claim that tougher background checks would have stopped the two mass shootings that tragically took the lives of a total of 31 innocents in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend.
“In the wake of two mass shootings that left 31 dead, President Donald Trump tweeted Monday morning that ‘Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks,’ suggesting that the legislation be paired with immigration revisions,” noted CNN. “Would strengthening or expanding background checks have prevented the alleged shooters from purchasing firearms?”
The network’s fact-check admitted that this was “doubtful”:
“There is no indication that the shooting in Dayton, Ohio, would have been prevented by proposed universal background checks or legislation to bolster the federal background check system. The alleged El Paso, Texas, shooter purchased his firearm legally and there is no evidence that he had a criminal history that a background check would’ve caught.”
CNN has taken heat for their glaring bias in favor of gun control measures, most notably with their disaster of a “town hall” event following the Parkland High School shooting in Florida. National Rifle Association (NRA) spokeswomen Dana Loesch was heckled as a murderer and had her role as a mother questioned by grieving students who were shoved in front of TV cameras.
On the same day the fact-check was published on CNN, anchors Poppy Harlow and John Avlon falsely claimed on-air that President Donald Trump eliminated a proposed Obama-era regulation that would keep firearms out of the hands of the “mentally ill.” The proposed rule was a broad measure that would have undermined not only the Second but Fourth Amendment rights of tens of thousands of innocent Americans in constitutionally dubious fashion. Even the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has become increasingly partisan over the years, vehemently opposed the regulation. “The ACLU and 23 national disability groups did not oppose this rule because we want more guns in our community. This is about more than guns. Adding more innocent Americans to the National Instant Criminal Background database because of a mental disability is a disturbing trend — one that could be applied to voting, parenting or other rights dearer than gun ownership. We opposed it because it would do little to stem gun violence but do much to harm our civil rights,” the ACLU wrote at the time, as previously noted by The Daily Wire.
Another common battle cry from the Left in the wake of tragedy is to ban so-called assault weapons. But according to an independent study commissioned by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), former President Bill Clinton’s 1994 assault weapons ban did not reduce gun violence, The Washington Times reported in 2004.
“We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation’s recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun violence,” the NIJ report said.