The shooting at the White House Correspondence Dinner was terrifying and unacceptable, as is every act of gun violence that harms and kills our loved ones far too often in this country.
We must do better and build the safe future all Americans deserve. pic.twitter.com/OjsZAQDAYo
— GIFFORDS (@GIFFORDS_org) April 27, 2026
In the aftermath of the third attempt on Donald Trump’s life, CNN could think of no better voice to give the story some context than to platform a prominent member of the gun control industry, Giffords executive director Emma Brown. Because there’s never a bad time to push civilian disarmament.
Brown, however, had some trouble with the facts.
1. She said the “terror felt in the room” is experienced by Americans across the country every day, then cites the “gun death” statistic of 50,000 killed per year using guns. But most of those are suicides, and not crimes of violence against others. And she’s inflating that number. As of 2024, we’ve dropped down to under 45,000. Of those, 15,364 were homicides.
It also somehow slipped her mind during her interview that we’re experiencing a historic low in violent crime in this country, homicides in particular.
2. “[Guns] have become the leading cause of death for kids in this country.” Not “kids,” that’s misleading, as it’s primarily teenagers who are involved in gangs that are affected. Very few kids 12 and under die due to gun-related causes. Plus, that stat likely won’t even be true anymore once the 2025 data is finalized, as the 2024 data showed that vehicle-related deaths nearly overtook gun-related deaths once again among those under 18.
3. She complains about Americans allegedly “very easy access to firearms.” But the suspect bought his guns in California, a state in which Giffords basically writes all the gun laws. If the suspect (who had no prior disqualifying record), legally bought his guns in California — Giffords’ top-rated state — and yet they still complain about supposed “easy access to firearms,” then they should stop being cowards, end the charade and just admit the truth…what they really want is to ban all guns. Even the pump action shotgun the would be assassin was carrying.
Kostas Moros is Director of Legal Research and Education for the Second Amendment Foundation.