In a speech to conservatives, National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre distorted the facts when talking about the federal system for conducting background checks on prospective gun buyers.
NRA Chief’s Bogus Background Check Claims
Issues: Guns
Sanders Uses Stale Gun Sales Stat
Results of a national survey published in 2017 show that 13 percent of U.S. gun owners who purchased a firearm in the past two years did so without a background check. Sen. Bernie Sanders was wrong when he said recently that the figure was three times as high.
Trump Recycles Flawed Gun Talking Point
President Donald Trump has once again misused the example of Chicago to make a case against gun regulations.
Texas Shooting Unrelated to Antifa
Q: Was the man who killed more than two dozen people in a rural Texas church trying to start a civil war as a member of antifa?
A: No. Law enforcement officials believe the mass shooting was motivated by a family dispute, and they are not investigating it as an act of terrorism.
NRA Exec’s False Gun Claim
The head of the National Rifle Association’s political and lobbying arm incorrectly described a repealed Social Security Administration reporting requirement for gun background checks as targeting senior citizens “who asked for help handling their finances.”
Trump Nixed Gun-Control Rule
Q: Did President Donald Trump repeal a rule that aims to block some people with mental disorders from buying guns?
A: Yes. The Social Security Administration is no longer required to submit the names of certain mentally disabled beneficiaries to a federal agency that conducts gun background checks.
Murphy Misses on NRA Track Record
Sen. Chris Murphy urged politicians to stand up to the National Rifle Association because while “[t]he gun lobby is certainly politically powerful … it loses as many races as it wins.” But the NRA has won the vast majority of recent congressional races in which it heavily invested.
Gun Control in Australia, Updated
In 2009, we wrote an Ask FactCheck item for readers who wanted to know, “Did gun control in Australia lead to more murders there last year?” The answer at the time was “no,” and that’s still the case.
Obama’s Final Numbers
The numbers are nearly all in now. What they show about what really happened during the eight years that Barack Obama was president is sometimes different from what politicians claimed.
Video: Obama’s Whoppers
In this video, we look back at some of the more egregious falsehoods uttered by President Obama during his two terms in office.