Tag Archives: Everytown

Find The School Shooting: Part 6

Why do I do this? I just checked the ten latest entries in Everytown’s list of “school” shootings. It isn’t as if I don’t know by now what I’ll find.

Spoiler: Right off the top, 40% were not school shootings at all. Let’s look at the details.

  • 12/2/2019 Waukesha South High School
    Police shooting, legal intervention.
  • 11/29/2019 Illinois Institute of Technology
    A man was shot and killed Friday near the Illinois Institute of Technology campus in Bronzeville on the South Side.
  • 11/26/2019 Sarah J. Anderson Elementary School
    Vancouver Public Schools spokesperson Pat Nuzzo said the “targeted” shooting took place in the school parking lot at 3:15 p.m., but did not involve students or staff.
  • 11/23/2019 Searles Elementary School
    The shootings of the boys, ages 11 and 14, took place in the parking lot of Searles Elementary School, CBS San Francisco reported. Callers to 911 reported hearing gunfire at around 1:30 a.m., the station said.
  • 11/23/2019 Florida Memorial University
    Open party on campus, 10:15PM. Unidentified; unknown if students or staff, or just visiting partiers. Given the area, I imagine it was gang-related.
  • 11/23/2019 Southern University at New Orleans
    A spokesperson with SUNO stated that the victim is not a student or employee of the university and that the university rents out the building to non-affiliates of the university.
  • 11/23/2019 University of Louisville
    Three people were injured in a shooting Wednesday night near the University of Louisville, according to police.”
  • 11/15/2019 Pleasantville High School
    A shooting took place on the football field at Pleasantville High School in New Jersey on November 15.
  • 11/14/2019 Saugus High School
    A girl and a boy were killed and three of their classmates wounded when a fellow student opened fire on his birthday at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita Thursday morning, authorities said.
  • 11/11/2019 Achievement Academy
    A 19-year-old male student was shot Monday afternoon outside Achievement Academy in northeast Baltimore.” Targeted attack on public street in front of school.

Four of ten were not on school grounds: 40% not school shootings, even by Everytown’s expansive definition.

One was a police officer stopping a crime. On campus, but not what most folks would think of as a school shooting.

Two more happened in school parking lots after hours, and did not involve students or staff. On campus, but not what most folks would think of as a school shooting.

One was an after-hours open party on a university campus. Victims not yet identified. Maybe, maybe not, but not what folks think of as a school shooting.

That leaves two shootings on high school campuses, involving students, and at school-related events.

You may recall that I object to Everytown inflating their count by including colleges and universities, when most folks think they’re talking about elementary and high schools. 40% of these are such (including three that weren’t actually on school grounds). I didn’t take the time to fact check the next ten entries, but seven of that ten are college/university, too. That’s 55%.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited, and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

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Find The School Shooting, Part 5

I’m such a glutton for punishment. I looked at Everytown’s list of “school” shootings again. Only seven new entries since last I checked.

The score today:
3 of 7 of these don’t even meet Everytown’s crazed definition, leaving only 4. That gives them a generous 57.1% accuracy rate; much worse than last week.

There’s a non-student drug deal that was only coincidentally on — university — campus; strike that one: down to 42.9% accuracy.

If you limit it actual shootings at elementary or high schools — you know, where kids might be –, which is what most people think of when you say “school,” only 1 of 7 qualifies: 14.3% “accuracy.” And that one didn’t involve kids; they don’t even know when it happened because no one notice until they found a broken window.

And yet idiot journalists pushing an anti-rights agenda still cite these liars. And Bloomberg continues to pay Shannon Watts for this incompetence.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited, and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

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Find The School Shooting, Part 4

An occasional “hobby” of mine is fact checking the Everytown list of “school” shootings. It’s been awhile so I decided to try again.

Since they don’t actually link to supporting documentation for their claims, I have to — tediously — search for reports. So I only checked the ten most recent listings.

20% of the “school” shootings were not; not even by the expansive Everytown definition.

Another 10% was questionable. I think it was a parking structure near campus housing, but I’m not sure.

Of the seven remaining incidents, four were college/university, not what the uninformed would expect to be schools full of children. And two of those were only coincidentally on campus.

That leaves three real school shootings, involving minors in some way. One of those was only that minors were inside the building struck by a stray round from mobile shootout as the cars passed the school.

But technically, Everytown’s error rate is down to a mere 20%, or maybe 30%. Or 40% (intent matters; no one was trying to hit that school window). Or 60% wrong, if you don’t count the college shootings that had nothing to do with the colleges.

I’ll be generous and give them a 50% “correct” rate. That’s actually up since the last time we played.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited, and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

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Let’s play “Find the School Shooting” again

It’s time to guess how many of Everytown Dances In the Blood’s “school shootings” are anything resembling actual school shootings.

By Everytown’s definition, all of these do count as school shootings. But half of them were essentially after hours street shootings involving non-students. Some on public streets that happen to be within a college campus radius. Another one was only a “school shooting” because a stray round — not intended for the school — hit a window after hours; I won’t count that, intent matters. So that’s 60% of Everytown’s “school shootings” that aren’t.

So they score a measly 40% this time.

In February, 2018, they scored 71%.

In August, 2018, they scored a possible 50%.

Now they’re down to 40%, as they scrape and dig desperately for scary numbers to drive their victim disarmament agenda.

A centralized listing of real school shootings — as normal, sane, unbiased people would understand the term — would be useful. Everytown can’t and won’t do that. Because adult thugs shooting each other on the weekend don’t scare parents and students as much as often-imaginary shootings in school.

But if Everytown decides they can and will provide decent data, they could use this definition:

A shooting which directly involves students, staff, or visitors to the school (not just someone on the property) on school property; at a school-sponsored event on school property; or where the school, students, or staff were intended targets on school property. After-hours incidents unrelated to the school other than location will not be included. Separate lists for high/middle/elementary schools and colleges/universities generally staffed and attended by adults will be maintained, to make more clear the threats to minors.

They could, but they won’t.


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Agenda, Not Accuracy

It’s time to play “What does Everytown pretend is a school shooting?” again.

Back in February, I fact-checked Everytown for Gun “Safety”‘s list of school shootings. 29% of their “school shootings” did not meet even their own definition.* Some weren’t shootings.

Have they improved any?

NO.

Having limited time to look up cases (Everytown conveniently — for them — does not provide supporting links for their claims, so it takes research to find the reports), I only checked the latest ten on the list. And I provide links so you can verify my findings.

Half — 50% — of Everytown’s “school shootings” are NOT school shootings even by their expansive definition.

Three — 30% do meet their definition, but happened after hours, involving people not associated with the school; that is deliberately misleading

Two cases — 20% are dubious. One was a guy shot as he fled towards the school; the killer certainly tried to get him before he jumped the fence. The other appears to be another of those not-during-school-hours, no-school-people-involved shootings, but since they apparently got the date wrong, maybe that isn’t what they’re listing; I found no shooting on the date they gave.

Everytown’s “school shooting” list has not improved. It has gotten far worse, far less accurate.

But lies are close enough for a victim-disarming agenda.


* “Everytown tracks every time a firearm discharges a live round inside or into a school building or on or onto a school campus or grounds, as documented by the press.”


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[UPDATE] School Shootings

So Shannon TWatts was mouthing off about school shootings again, after the LA middle school shooting. She claimed:

This is the 14th American school shooting in 2018

Someone replied, asking for a list of those shootings, And TWatts told her to Google “Everytown school shootings”. She couldn’t be bothered to provide a link.

So I searched it and found that “Everytown” list. It lists “school shootings” but doesn’t provide links. Per Everytown,

Consistent with expert advice and common sense, Everytown uses a straightforward, fair, and comprehensive definition for a school shooting: any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds, as documented by the press and, when necessary, confirmed through further inquiries with law enforcement or school officials.

I checked on the shootings they list.

Two suicides (one only coincidentally on school grounds), one negligent discharge by a cop, two shots from off campus that hit buildings with no injuries, two drive-bys from off campus with no injuries, one drive-by off campus with no injuries, one shot at 1AM at an “event venue” on an extended college campus, four under-age students shooting students, and one guy killed “near” a school.

So 29% of Everytown’s “school shootings” don’t even meet their own definition of “school shooting.” Some clearly had nothing to do with “school” other than happening on campus well after hours, typically by non-students entering the grounds. One was a freaking cop authorized to have that gun. They had to include a shooting that didn’t involve students, faculty, or school grounds; “near.” Of the shootings that met Everytown’s own definition, most shooters were breaking existing laws in even possessing firearms. Virtually all broke existing laws in bringing the gun on campus.

Real school shootings are a bad thing. They should be addressed, fixed, ended. But inflating the numbers with other incidents is panic-mongering, and shrouds and distorts the facts of real school shootings.

Added, 2/7/2018: They have a couple more! Let’s see what there is to see…

Maybe schools should be cop-free zones. That’s twice in a month.


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Dear Douchestick – Don’t quit your day job

I’m a science fiction geek. I love the Star Wars movies, the superhero comic movies, classic science fiction from Asimov, Heinlein, and Bradbury, and yes, even the Star Trek reboots (please don’t start throwing tomatoes at me)!

What makes me absolutely crazy is actors whom I otherwise admire, deciding to use their rather large soapbox to push odious political agendas. They have a mike. They have the influence by virtue of being famous, and by having numerous admirers. And they take advantage of these tools to spout about issues on which they are often ignorant. Ridiculously ignorant. So stupid…

Can you see why the sci-fi nerd in me wants to take Hamill’s light saber and stick it up his… ignorance?

Mark Hamill – a guy who played what essentially is a citizen warrior rebel against a powerful authority – is now telling us that we, peons, only have the right to keep and bear arms that existed at the time of the creation of the Bill of Rights and promoting more government control over We the People!

I’m not even going to touch the whole “dumbass can’t spell ‘amendment'” issue!

The problem with celebrities promoting idiot causes is that many times, while their intentions may be good, their ignorance of the issue prevents them from seeing just how stupid their statements are!

If Hamill is convinced that the Second Amendment only protects the right to own a musket, then the First Amendment only protects his right to spew his lunacy using 18th Century writing implements. His right to spew on national television is not protected, and I’m pretty sure the Founders didn’t have Internet either!

And of course, the ever-present loons at Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown, glommed onto Hamill’s douchery like dobermans on a tasty steak! Because there’s nothing these authoritarian tools love more than idiot celebrities who promote their causes for them!

Here’s a clue, Mr. Hamill: stick to your day job. You’re a decent actor, but constitutional law, philosophical discussions about natural rights, and history are not your strong suits.

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