The Blaze was not the only media outlet to cover Johnson’s findings, Charles C.W. Cooke, staff writer for National Review Online, also wrote a piece for NRO, covering Johnson’s findings. Cooke also made an appearance on “The Buck Sexton Show” to discuss his piece and Johnson’s findings. Cooke reports Johnson’s finding as less than 7 of the 74 “school shootings” were mass shootings. Not only that, but Cooke reports that at least one of these “shootings”, “…more probably didn’t happen at all, that at least one was actually a case of self-defense, and that 32 could be classified as “school shootings” only if we are to twist the meaning of the term beyond all recognition.”
Cooke points out that point of Everytown’s data is not to report the facts but to burn the “74 school shootings since Newtown” figure into people’s heads. “This is why it hides its disclaimer at the very bottom of a long and detailed page. And it is why it includes no such qualifications at all on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media…” says Cooke.
According to Johnson, you can’t classify it as a “school shooting” when someone targets a specific individual, “it’s a shooting that takes place at a school”. So according to Johnson, it must be a mass shooting in order to classify as a “school shooting”.
I am not entirely certain that I agree with Johnson’s definition of a school shooting, but nonetheless, Johnson, has unearthed valuable information, which proves that Everytown is manipulating the data to serve their own anti-gun agenda. To say this in Cooke’s words, it is twisting “…the meaning of the term beyond all recognition.” Despite Johnson’s definition, one might be able to legitimately argue that targeting a specific individual, would still fall under the confines of a “school shooting”. However I can in no way conceive how would could every make a legitimate argument, for classifying violent disputes and gang violence as a “school shooting”. If the incident does not involve shots being fired, I don’t see how you can classify it as a shooting of any kind, school or otherwise.
The fact that Everytown is classifying non-gun involving incidents, or shootings of any kind, school or otherwise, as “school shootings”, all but proves that Everytown is trying to persuade people that mass shootings and gun violence are on the rise, when in fact they are at a thirty year low. If Everytown convinces people that these falsehoods are true, then not only will stir up anti-gun ardor once again, but people will adopt the anti-gun mentality that the left endorses, which is exactly what Everytown and the anti-gun leftist are trying to accomplish, they want people to believe that guns are bad and dangerous.