Last week, the two authors of a study the FBI released on September 24, 2014, admitted they “got it wrong” when they “reported mass shootings were on the rise” in America.
Outlets like The New York Times and the Associated Press had seized on the study...as proof that more gun control was needed...
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has now reported that the study was wrong.
For example, the study claimed a “16%” increase in mass shootings from 2000 to 2013.
In the last 7 years of the study, that average increased to 16.4 incidents annually.”
Blair and Martaindale even used the faulty findings to predict that mass shootings were going to continue increasing in frequency by stating that “the findings establish an increasing frequency of incidents.”...
Moreover, they essentially admitted to creating data in the absence of extant data which supported their thesis.
Blair and Martaindale said, “Because official data did not contain the information we needed, we had to develop our own.”
WSJ points out the irony of it all inasmuch as the truth is completely opposite what the study presented.
The occurrences of mass shootings have remained essentially flat for 40 years, and violent crime fell significantly during the period Blair and Martindale studied.
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