The 'smell test' and school shooting misinformation

I share the outrage and concern expressed by Ms. Hunter in her letter dated March 6. However, she began by stating that her husband had read that Parkland was "the 18th school shooting so far this year." That "statistic" was first tweeted by Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit group founded by Michael Bloomburg, billionaire and former mayor of New York. The tweet was picked up and retweeted by many of the major news outlets, excluding CNN and Fox News, Bernie Sanders and, of course, a number of Hollywood celebrities.

Soon after the tweet went viral, The Washington Post came out with an article completely invalidating the claim. Google "how many school mass shootings in 2018" for the article.

One school shooting is too many, and we should all seek practical solutions to the problem of all forms of gun violence. When people simply pass along a dubious statement by a well-intentioned but agenda-driven organization, they only serve to confuse the issue.

There's something called the smell test. When something seems outrageous or even suspect, it takes only a few minutes on your laptop to validate of invalidate the claim. I recommend employing the test judiciously.

David Carrell

Campton Hills