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Media Are Pushing Inflated '18 School Shootings' Statistic. Here Are the Facts.

Have there really been 18 school shootings so far in 2018? That’s what a gun control advocacy nonprofit is claiming in the wake of a horrifying school shooting in Florida that left 17 people dead.

But while even one school shooting is a tragedy, using the false statistic of “18 school shootings” is incredibly misleading.

On today’s show, Stu went through each example cited on the list to debunk the fake stat. The “18” number includes not only a shooting at a high school in Benton, Kentuckyearlier this year, but also incidents where one person committed suicide near a school or a gun was unintentionally fired and did not injure anyone.

Watch the full clip (above) to learn why this talking point just isn’t accurate.

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

GLENN: It's Pat and Stu for Glenn.

Still sick. All right. The -- what are the details? Because you hear these things thrown out by the left all the time. This is the 18th time this year we've had a school shooting. It's February 14th -- yesterday -- and already, there's been 18 this year.

Really? Where have I been?

STU: Yeah.

PAT: I guess I haven't checked my Facebook feed in a while.

STU: Well, you know what, Pat, it's not that. It's just, these are so common now. They don't even get reported. People don't even care.

PAT: Yeah. Yeah.

STU: Because it just comes and go. They happen so commonly. That you don't even realize they're going on anymore.

PAT: So I love that statistic. The other than -- we'll talk about this one too, we're unique among nations. This is the only place this happens. Okay.

So the 18 statistic, how are we so stupid and uninformed and ignorant? We didn't even know. I thought this was the first one of the year.

STU: Right. And that you would be wrong for that because there's been 18.

I'm now going to give you the details to all 18 shootings, okay?

PAT: Oh, no.

STU: Are you ready? When you hear 18, these are the 18 they're talking about, okay? What we're talking about are school shootings. What do you think of when you think of school shootings? You think about the one yesterday. That's one of the 18, as we know. So there's 17 others.

January 23rd, in Benton, Kentucky, two people were killed, and another 15 were shot at marshal county high school. So that one I think qualifies (?) as what we think of when we think of a school shooting. It's a mass shooting eventual. (?) now, only two killed. Obviously two more than should be killed. But 15 shot in addition to that. That qualifies as what we think of. And you might say, I may or may not have heard about that. So here's the other. There's 16 others. (?) a fight at a Pennsylvania high school. A 32-year-old man was shot and later died. Okay. Now, that's not a mass shooting event, right? That was a fight that broke out

PAT: It's not the same thing at all.

STU: Not at all what you would think of. Okay. January 20th (?) was shot and killed. Was one player. I don't have all the details of the incidents here. But it was not a mass shooting event.

PAT: That could be a gang bang event. Who knows.

STU: Who knows. But, again, one person being shot is not what you think about when you think about these incidents. (?)

Was wounded by shots by a semi automatic handgun. (?) she was wounded.

PAT: Again, that's not a mass shooting.

STU: Not a mass shooting. And also, wouldn't it make sense that you didn't know about one person being wounded in a shooting (?) that wouldn't necessarily rise to the point of Marilyn national news coverage. Right? Obviously, things happen all the time. They're terrible when they do. But that's not a national news story. (?) was injured in a shooting. Okay. Another injury in the shooting. These are the 18 school shootings that have happened this year, supposedly. February 1st, Los Angeles. Five children were injured in an accidental shooting.

PAT: Definitely not the same thing.

STU: Definitely not the same thing. February (?) injured outside of a high school. One teenager was shot, not killed, but injured outside of a high school. Okay?

Next up, February 5th, maple wood, Minnesota, (?) on a cop's gun. No one was injured. They're counting that as a school shooting. A third grader pulled the trigger on a cop's gun. No one was injured. That is a school shooting to the media.

PAT: Hmm.

STU: February 8th, in New York, a shot was fired inside a metropolitan high school. No one was injured.

On January 25th in Mobile, Alabama (?) no one was injured. On January 26th in Dearborn, Michigan (?) no injuries were reported. Okay?

PAT: That's probably -- that's a drive-by shooting. A lot of these are probably, you know, gang violence or disagreements between people. It's not the same thing at all. It's not even close.

STU: And what on earth would make you hear about a third grader (?) and nobody was injured. Why on earth would you be alerted to that in the media.

PAT: You wouldn't. It's not a story.

STU: You wouldn't. And, of course, none of these media sources that are complaining about the 18 shootings reported something like that. They didn't report about this one either. On January 15th. A bullet (?) dorm room. No injuries were reported. The same day, Texas, bullet was accidentally fired through a classroom wall at a criminal justice sister. No one was injured.

PAT: At a criminal justice sister. (?) that doesn't sound like that's on school.

STU: A gunshot was fired at a high school in Seattle through an office window. No one was injured. (?) shattering a California state university classroom window. No one was injured.

We have two more to go. Do you think so far, there's been 16 shootings I've told you about.

PAT: There's been another one.

STU: One. And a couple bad incidents of things that have existed forever. Mass shooting, there's been one other one. Here's the last two, January 3rd, a man shot himself in a former school's parking lot.

PAT: Suicide is not the same.

STU: And, again, it has -- what law prevents a guy from taking his gun and shooting himself in a (?) you're not allowed to bring the and he did it anyway. There's already a law that should have prevented that. And it didn't happen. Last one, January 10th, a teen killed himself in an Arizona elementary bathroom. Again, not the same thing.

PAT: Not the same thing.

STU: So what you have is the media telling you (?) and what they're including in that is a third grader pulling the trigger of a cop's gun and no one was injured. Almost all those circumstances that I told you about, there were no injuries reported whatsoever. And the media is trotting that stat out, as if it's supposed to make you give up your Second Amendment rights.

That is incomprehensibly disingenuous.

PAT: It's sickening.

STU: As you point out, Pat, it's just a lie. It's just a lie. And, by the way, it comes from a gun control group. An advocacy group for gun control. Now, even they say, there's only been six (?) as I point out, suicides are included in that. You know, some guy who is troubled has a handgun, which no one -- none of this legislation would stop him from having. And he decides he's going to go to a parking lot. (?) and just shot himself in a parking lot. No one else was hurt. And then some of these are insane. Someone getting shot -- a bullet going through a window with no injuries reported whatsoever. Why on earth would that make national news? They know it wouldn't. Nothing occurred.

PAT: Nope.

STU: And yet, they'll still trot this out. You will hear this from dozens of people in the media today. Because they just don't question it. Sadly, I heard it from a student at the school. They're talking about one of the students that survived this incident. And he goes on CNN saying, look, this is the 18th one of these this year. This is the 18th this year. Why don't we do something? Sure, we should do something. But the thing you're suggesting is the thing you can't get accomplished.

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The Glenn Beck Program Honors Charlie Kirk

Join Glenn as he goes live to honor the memory of Charlie Kirk. A time of prayer, grieving, and remembrance for a husband, father, and patriot.

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Glenn joins Megyn Kelly live to discuss Charlie Kirk shooting

Covering the breaking news of Charlie Kirk at shot at Turning Point USA event.

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Please pray for my friend Charlie.

Please pray for Charlie Kirk.

Please pray for our Republic.

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Gen Z's surprising support for Trump and socialist policies revealed in new poll

A shocking number of young Americans support BOTH President Trump and democratic socialism, a new poll has found, and they're willing to make major changes to the American system to get what they feel they deserve. Justin Haskins, who conducted the poll with Rasmussen, joins Glenn Beck to break down the unexpected findings…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Justin Haskins. He's the president of our republic. StoppingSocialism.com. He's editor-in-chief. And also the coauthor of several books, with me. Welcome to the program, Justin.

How are you?

JUSTIN: I'm doing well, Glenn. How are you?

STU: Well, I was well, until you contacted me on vacation, and sent me this disturbing poll.

I am in bed at night.

And I'm reading this. I'm like, oh, dear.

What? My wife is like, I told you to not check this email. I'm like, I didn't know Justin was going to write to me.

Justin, tell me, first of all, before we get into it, how secure is the sample size on this poll?

JUSTIN: It's a very good sample size. 1200 people nationally.

Only 18 to 39-year-olds. And we did that deliberately, so that we could get a sample size large enough so we could pull out valid responses, just from younger people.

So the whole purpose of this poll was to find out what younger people, 18 to 39 think, voters only. And people who say that they're likely to vote. So we're not talking about just people out in the public. We're not talking about registered voters.

We're talking about people who are registered to vote. And say they're likely to vote.

GLENN: So let's go over some of the things that you have already released to the press.

And that is, in the survey, 18 to 39-year-olds, likely voters.

The Trump approval rating is a lot higher than you thought it would be. Right?

JUSTIN: Yeah. Yeah. Forty-eight percent positive approval rating of Donald Trump, which for young people, is very high.

So that's -- that's the good news.

That's the only good news we're going to talk about.

GLENN: We might have to come back to that first question several times.

Do you believe the United States is a fundamentally good, evil, or morally mixed country?

JUSTIN: Yep. This one is not too bad.

It's not great. But fundamentally good was 28 percent.

Which is low. But mixed was 50 percent.

And fundamentally evil was 17 percent.

And I think mixed at 50 percent is not an unreasonable, crazy response.

I -- I can see why all sorts of people might choose that.

So I don't think there's anything terrible here. It depends on what you mean by mixed. Fundamentally good at 28 percent. It's a little low. Fundamentally evil at 17 percent, it's a little disturbing. But it's not -- it's not insane. The insane stuff comes a little bit later.

GLENN: Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Major industries talk about the crazy stuff coming later, here it is.

Major industries like health care, energy, and big tech should be nationalized and give more control and equity to the people.

JUSTIN: Yeah. This was -- this was -- this one floored me. If I look at strongly agree. Somewhat agree for that statement you just read. It's over 70 percent of young people, including -- including the vast majority of Republicans. Young Republicans. And people who identify as conservatives.

It was pretty similar, in fact, how young people responded compared to liberals and independents.

And Democrats.

They all pretty much agreed that, yes. The government. The federal government should be nationalizing whole industries to make things more equitable for people.

GLENN: As the guy who is the chief -- editor-in-chief of stopping socialism. What's the problem with nationalizing energy, and health care?

JUSTIN: Well --

GLENN: What happens, typically.

JUSTIN: Well, usually, there's blood in the streets, when you do too much of that.

You know, socialism, communism have been spectacularly horrible, throughout the course of human history. Across every society, culture, religion.

It doesn't matter when or what kind of technological advancements you have. The more you collect vies a society. The more authoritarian that society gets. The less you have individual freedom. And the worst the economy usually is for regular people. So it's been a catastrophe across-the-board. Everyone listening to this audience, probably knows that.

And so the idea that you would have three-quarters of young voters. So remember, these people will be the primary voters in ten to 20 years.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

JUSTIN: Saying, yeah. We should be nationalizing whole industries. Whole industries, is so disturbing.

And I don't think that conservatives are -- understand how deeply rooted some of these ideas are with younger people.

GLENN: No. No.

And I will tell you, I think some conservatives are walking a very dangerous line. And, you know, coming up with a little mix of everything.

And -- and I think we have to be very careful on -- on what is being said. And who are WHO our friends and allies are.

By the way, that number again is 39 percent strongly agree.

37 percent somewhat agree.

Somewhat disagree, 12 percent. Strongly disagree, 5 percent.

That is disastrous. Now, try this one on. These are the ones that have been -- we have new ones.

These are just a few of the ones that were released late last week. The next presidential election is in 2028. Would you like to see a democratic socialist candidate win the 2028 presidential election?

JUSTIN: Yep, 53 percent said yes.

Fifty-three percent of all voters said yes. And the most shocking thing, was that 35 percent of those who we poll, who said they voted for Donald Trump, in 2024, said that that they want to see a socialist win in 2028. And so about a third of Republicans, 35 percent of Trump voters, 43 percent of people who call themselves conservatives, so even on the right, among younger people. There is a large group that want a socialist president, in 2028.

GLENN: And the reason -- the reason is, it -- it tied into the next few questions. Okay.

So here's question five. Among the following options, which best describes your biggest reason, you would like to see a democratic socialist candidate. Thirty-one percent said housing costs are too high. Twelve percent, taxes are too low for corporations. Eleven percent, taxes are too low for wealthy have I seen.

Eight percent want single payer health care systems. Seventeen say the economy unfairly benefits older, wealthier Americans.

Fifteen percent say the economy unfairly benefits larger corporations. 5 percent, some other reason.

And 2 percent, unsure. Now, let's get into the new polls that were breaking today.

Question six.

How would you describe your current financial situation?

JUSTIN: Yeah. Only 24 percent said that they're doing well. Thirty-four -- 38 percent said getting by. Struggling 29 percent. Seven percent said in crisis. So if you add up just getting by, struggling, and in crisis, that's 74 percent said that they're just barely getting by, at best.

And I think that explains a lot of the other negative responses we've seen so far.

GLENN: That's not good.

JUSTIN: In this poll. And the ones that are going to come pretty soon here.

GLENN: Seven. Which best describes your personal life situation?

You are thriving, you're doing well with a few ups and downs. You feel stuck and uncertain. You feel lonely, disconnected, or emotionally drained. You're in a crisis and feel most negative about your personal life.

JUSTIN: Yeah. Yeah. About a third said that they feel stuck or uncertain. Lonely. Or that they're in a crisis.

That's a third of young people. Say that.

I mean, that's -- that's not great. Only 19 percent said thriving.

46 percent said, they have ups and downs. Which I think is not. Too shocking.

But the idea that there's a third of American voters out there, who feel like, they can't buy a home. And they feel like they are lonely. And that they're in crisis. And that life is not just going well at all for them.

Again, I think that's -- that's driving a lot of the support for socialism. When you have 53 percent of these people saying, yeah. I want a socialist president in 2028.

GLENN: So socialism is not the answer. It is the symptom. It is the symptom of what people are feeling right now.

And they -- they don't know any other -- they don't -- nobody is presenting them with anything other than, you know, Republican/Democrat bullcrap. And socialists are coming at it from a completely nigh angle. Or so the youth think it's the oldest and most failed system of all time.

But they're seeing this as a solution that is different than what the party -- the Republican/Democrats are offering. Even though the Democrats are offering the socialism thing.

Number eight, do you think the American economy is unfair to young people?

Sixty-two percent say yes.

JUSTIN: Yeah, and 27 percent said no.
And I think that this really gets at the heart of what the issue is here.

When you look at the reasons. When you look at the detailed things of the poll.

What -- to try to find out if there's an association between some kind of demographic or response question about people's lives and their support for socialism, to see if there's a correlation there between something that is happening. And whether someone is a socialist or not.

One of the top correlations, connections, is, if people think the economy is unfair.

And if they're having trouble buying a home. Or they don't think they can buy a home. Or that's one of their reasons for supporting socialism.

So, in other words, there's this fairness issue. And it's not even about inequality.

It's not about, well, they have too much -- well, if they feel like the -- to use a Trump term. Rigged.

And throughout the data. That's what we see over and over and over again. Is lots of people say, the economy is rigged. For older people. For wealthier people, for corporations. It's rigged. And if they say, yeah. I think it's rigged, you know, then they're more likely to say, yeah. I want a socialist.

And I also think the same group has a relatively high approval rating of Donald Trump.

It's because the reason that a lot of young people like Trump in the poll, is that he's not part of the establishment.

And I think -- I don't think they -- I think a lot of young people who voted for Trump and who liked Trump, they didn't do it, because they liked free market, pro-liberty policies. And that's not a good thing.

But I don't think that's why they did it. I think a lot of them voted for Trump and supported him, because he's not the establishment. And that's what they don't like. They want to blow the establishment up.

JUSTIN: So my -- Justin, my sample size is my two young adults. My two children.

And they're like, talking to me, and saying, Dad. I will never be able to own a home, looking at the prices, looking at interest rates. They're like, I can't even afford to pay rent at an apartment. And they don't know what to do.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

JASON: And so they're looking at -- on, like, TikTok. And they're like, who is this Mamdani guy? This sounds interesting. They bring this to me. They grew up listening to me indoctrinating them their entire lives. They're looking at other voices like on TikTok. Are we just not being loud enough?

GLENN: No. We're not -- we're not connecting with them. We're not -- I feel like they don't feel they're being heard.

And we are speaking to them in red, white and be blue.

And that means nothing. The Statue of Liberty means nothing to them. Ellis Island means nothing to them. The flag means nothing to them.

It's all partisan politics.

They're all symbols of really, the two parties.

You know, and an America, they don't relate to at all.

I think that's -- that's our biggest problem, and not being able to break through. To your point, question nine. How confident are you that you will own a home at some point, in the next ten years?

29 percent say, they already own a home. Which I found interesting. That's -- I think a pretty high number for somebody who is 18 to 34 years old.

JUSTIN: Thirty-nine.

GLENN: Thirty-nine.

JUSTIN: Yeah.

GLENN: There's a lot of 18 to 30. That I didn't own home when I was, you know, 30. Just got a home when I was 30. But go ahead. Go ahead with the rest of that poll.

JUSTIN: Yeah. So then 21 percent said discouraged, but somewhat hopeful. 12 percent said, not confident. 10 percent said, you are convinced you will never own a home. 3 percent not sure.

So if you add up the negative responses, it's around 43 percent that gave that response.

GLENN: Right. But, again, 29 percent, you already own a home. And 25 percent you are confident you will own a home, is still good. It just -- these -- these other numbers, have, you know, discouraged, but hopefully you will own a home. Who is discouraging that? And how is that being discouraged?

You know, only 12 -- let's see 12. Twenty-two. 25 percent are not sure they will ever own a home. That's too high of a number.

But I -- I don't think that's completely dismal. Now, a completely dismal answer, to the question, would you support a law that would confiscate America's excess wealth?

Including things like second homes. Luxury cars, and private boats, in order to help young people buy a home for the first time?

Are you for or against that? We'll give you that number here in just a second.

GLENN: There are some disturbing results, that get very disturbing, going from here on.

We've got two of these today, and then more tomorrow.

We'll spend more time with you tomorrow, Justin.

But would you support a law that would confiscate American's excess wealth, including things like second home, luxury cars, and private boats in order to help young people buy a home for the first time? Get the results.

JUSTIN: Yeah, 25 percent strongly support that, 30 percent somewhat support it, 55 percent in total for support. Only 38 percent strongly or somewhat oppose, with just 20 percent saying strongly oppose. So the vast majority now is -- is supporting this Communistic policy to confiscate people's wealth in order to help people. Younger people buy homes, which is in line with that question, we talked about earlier. Where it said, you know, three-quarters of these respondents wanted to nationalize whole industries to make things fairer. So it's all about -- it's all about this sense of unfairness that exists.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

JUSTIN: And they feel like. Young people feel like the system is rigged. They feel like neither party is on their side, and they want to blow the whole thing up, by just taking wealth away from people, nationalizing whole industries, and redistributing it all.

And guess what, that's basically the democratic socialist platform. So it's not a surprise that that's -- that's becoming increasingly more popular with these young people.

And I don't think that free market, pro-liberty people are dealing with -- with this.

GLENN: No.

JUSTIN: In a real way.

In fact, I think a lot of us have believed recently that the wind is at our backs, and we're actually winning more and more young people over.
And that isn't what's happening according to the poll results.

GLENN: It explains why the Democrats have not moved their position off of the socialism stuff.

Doesn't it?

We keep saying, why? It's not working with anybody.

It is working. It is working with people under 39.

18 to 39-year-olds are hearing this message, and are embracing this message.