Well, not really, but what CNN did do was determine that 80% of the claim made by Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun group is bogus. Erika noted yesterday that other analyses show that it’s more like 90%, but give credit where it’s due. CNN decided to do what most media outlets skipped, and looked at the actual data:

So on Wednesday, CNN took a closer look at the list, delving into the circumstances of each incident Everytown included. Everytown says on its web site that it gleans its information from media reports and that its list includes school shootings involving a firearm discharged inside or on school grounds, including assaults, homicides, suicides and accidental shootings. CNN determined that 15 of the incidents Everytown included were situations similar to the violence in Oregon — a minor or adult actively shooting inside or near a school. That works out to about one shooting every five weeks. Some of the other incidents on Everytown’s list included personal arguments, accidents and alleged gang activities and drug deals.

While 15 school shootings is still 15 too many, it’s a far cry from Everytown’s claim of 74. Those were violent incidents as well, but they had other causes and weren’t the kind of mass shootings seen at Sandy Hook. Furthermore, the Santa Barbara massacre was not just a shooting either, and didn’t all take place in a school.

Everytown wants to blur lines and reduce all causes to the presence of firearms, but the Santa Barbara massacre is actually proof that the guns aren’t the cause. Their argument also neglects to mention that firearm violence has been decreasing over the last several years (especially since the end of the so-called assault weapons ban), and that mass shootings are very rare, even if they get tons of media attention for obvious reasons.

How can we prevent more of these incidents? The true connecting factor for most of these is mental illness, and we need some proposals for protecting society from the potentially dangerous among us no matter what weapons they access. Restricting weapons from law-abiding citizens won’t keep people like the Santa Barbara killer from committing multiple murders, and gaming stats to create hysteria as Bloomberg does only distracts from the real issues, and delays any work toward sensible and applicable solutions.