The school shootings that weren't.

IMO the liberal media is out of control. I guess to them the part of the 1st amendment that addresses freedom of speech means freedom to lie.

One of the problems is that if a shooting is not on school grounds, but near a school, the media will still put a "school shooting" headline on the story.

When I was in jr and senior high we had many shootings quite often involving teams even.

The JROTC shooting range was under the gymnasium. Most people didn’t even know it existed.

I think the discrepancy between fact caused by humans just goes to show that you can’t prevent bad things from happening when humans are involved.

Some quotes from the article HSO linked.

"Ray Poole, the chief of legal services for the Nassau County School District in Florida, told us that at one school where a shooting was reported, Callahan Middle School, on Nov. 21, 2015, a Saturday, a student took a picture of himself at home holding a gun and posted it to social media. "We got wind of it and nipped it in the bud." No shooting."

"At Redan Middle School, there is a report of a toy cap gun fired on a school bus — not a shooting."

President Trump playing fast and loose with facts and his repeated use of the term "Fake News" now has many folks fact checking information being put out by both sides of the Government and the Media.

It is not surprising to me is that President Trump is correct more often than not and it is Government Agencies and the Media that are publishing and reporting false information. They just refuse to acknowledge their mistakes when confronted with the data and then are surprised that the majority of people do not trust them.

For example "School Shootings" is a especially tricky term for Intercity schools in big urban areas like Chicago, Baltimore, etc. Drug dealers or gang bangers exchange bullets that just happen to be in a gun-free school zone is not actual violence on students but just happen to be reported because of it's location. However how does the story get reported by the media and anti-gun Government?

Anya Kamanetz, " The School Shootings That Weren't", NPR Morning Edition, 27 Aug 2018.

Such quality of data in that US Dept of Edu report criticized by NPR!

The report said 240 schools reported shootings. NPR checked with the listed schools or school districts: 161 denied a shooting occurred. NPR was able to confirm 11 incidents. They found four cases where something not a shooting had happened. One-fourth of the schools or districts did not answer NPR.

Omro school district in Wisconsin asked the US Dept of Edu:
should a consensual paintball-gun fight involving students be reported as an "attack with a weapon" or as a "possession of a firearm."

NPR contacted Santa Monica-Malibu Unified district about their four reported shootings. The district told NPR no shootings happened. When the district tried to get the government to correct the report, the district was told they were a month late submitting the correction and the report would remain as published, would not be updated and reissued.

If the anti's/far left have to rely on the truth they'll have no way to make their case against the 2A. The proof of the failure of their policies is here in Chicago, as well as other Democratic run cities which lead the nation in poverty and violence. My only concern is that too many people believe their lies, and we need to do what we can to get the truth out there.

Wow, just wow.

What is especially significant is that this is NPR reporting this, and not a conservative outlet like Fox News or National Review. Even the gun hating "Everytown" numbers are far less than what is commonly reported.

Kind of like when Sarah Brady talks about how many “children “ are killed by guns
She considers anyone under 26 as a child

I'm very pleasantly surprised by NPR's reporting in this case. It was a thoughtful, unbiased look at erroneous reporting in 'school shooting' incidents, and I think NPR deserves a kudos for avoiding confirmation bias and checking the numbers.

I can't say it's often I've had the occasion to say that about them. I hope I get more chances to do so.

This is very interesting on a number of levels.

Next up, let's go recheck those global warming stats....

I suspect that the data was compiled via a nexis search for news articles using school shootings as keywords. If you use "or" instead of "and" in the search, you get more hits. Ironically, we have better information about colleges and universities due to the Cleary Act. That being said, urban schools often have issues with regular robberies and assaults on their campuses from outside criminals looking for easy (usually disarmed) and rich victims.

The story says that the data was self-reported by schools. It appears that many schools did not understand the question. For instance, one school in the metro Atlanta area reported a cap gun going off on a school bus as an incident.

Talk about wow ...
NPR is reporting on errors in a database maintained by the U.S. Dept. of Education. The story clearly states the source for those numbers are school districts, which report them to the DoE. There was no "liberal media" involved there. If NPR is the one lying, that would mean ... what? There really are more school shootings than we thought? Their point, stated plainly in the first two lines, is that certainty in the government's numbers is impossible. That's all.

Jack B. said:

IMO the liberal media is out of control. I guess to them the part of the 1st amendment that addresses freedom of speech means freedom to lie.

Click to expand...

Paul Krugman of the New York Times has explicitly stated it's OK to promulgate a lie as long as it advances a government agenda for the greater good.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270364/paul-krugmans-intellectual-dishonesty-mark-tapson

v35 said:

Paul Krugman of the New York Times has explicitly stated it's OK to promulgate a lie as long as it advances a government agenda for the greater good.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270364/paul-krugmans-intellectual-dishonesty-mark-tapson

Click to expand...

I tried to find Krugman's statement to that effect in the article but could not. Could you quote it?

Jack B. said:

IMO the liberal media is out of control. I guess to them the part of the 1st amendment that addresses freedom of speech means freedom to lie.

Click to expand...

Could you explain your post?

I think it's, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should".

Especially when it is to manipulate a group of people to "feel" a way they wouldn't necessarily "think". I think it is called seduction, I'll have to look it up. I do know the devil does it...

I am astonished and pleased to see NPR questioning anything going against the party line. Perhaps journalism is not quite dead yet.

JTHunter said:

They will use any means, fair or foul, to achieve their ends.

Click to expand...

This is a bizarre thread. The Republican justice department produces an overstatement of school shootings that a 'liberal' newsgroup challenges, and finds support for 'our' position, yet people do nothing but criticize. It makes no sense!

roscoe said:

This is a bizarre thread. The Republican justice department produces an overstatement of school shootings that a 'liberal' newsgroup challenges, and finds support for 'our' position, yet people do nothing but criticize. It makes no sense!

Click to expand...

Don't worry. Even American politicians do not understand American politics. That's why the elections thing.

roscoe said:

This is a bizarre thread. The Republican justice department produces an overstatement of school shootings that a 'liberal' newsgroup challenges, and finds support for 'our' position, yet people do nothing but criticize. It makes no sense!

Click to expand...

I get the idea that some people didn't bother to read the article, and made assumptions.

roscoe said:

This is a bizarre thread. The Republican justice department produces an overstatement of school shootings that a 'liberal' newsgroup challenges, and finds support for 'our' position, yet people do nothing but criticize. It makes no sense!

Click to expand...

Right, it isn't like the Republican party doesn't lie left and right, exploit crises when it is convenient, etc. Or, here, never let a controversy go to waste and not blame the liberal media. After all, if it is controversial, we must blame the liberal media instead of actually talking about the actual issue.

Interesting data problem in the study.