Gannett’s flagship, USA TODAY, actually warned its shrinking readership that gun owners may call out its staffers for using fake mass-shooting data in their reporting.
In a story published Monday, reporter C. A. Bridges, who writes for the USA TODAY NETWORK, first claimed there have been six mass shootings in Florida this year, “double the number in the state last year at this time.”
Bridges then admitted he got his mass-shooting data from the Gun Violence Archive, or GVA, and he warned that the GVA data could be challenged.
“The GVA numbers, which have been disputed by pro-firearm organizations, may differ from the FBI or CDC as they collect data from more than 5,000 law enforcement, government and media sources,” Bridges wrote.
To be clear, the Gun Violence Archive has been debunked dozens of times for its fake mass-shooting data. Anytime four or more people are even slightly wounded with a firearm the GVA calls it a mass shooting—even if the incident is gang, drug or domestic-dispute related. Initially, politicians, gun control activists and the mainstream media treated the GVA’s reports as if they were gospel, but most now see the ridiculousness of the group’s claims.
In 2023, for example, the GVA claimed there were 656 mass shooting, which equates to 1.79 mass shootings per day. Not even USA TODAY with its once vast resources could have covered all of the mass shootings.
Even the Trace, the propaganda arm of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun empire, appears to have stopped using GVA data. Trace staffers turned toward the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, for a story published in 2024. They did not rely upon GVA data.
As to Bridges’ wild claims about the source of GVA’s data, the “5,000 law enforcement, government and media sources,” nothing could be further from the truth.
When I interviewed GVA co-founder and executive director Mark Bryant in 2021, he said his researchers consult a mass of about 7,500 sources, including: law enforcement Twitter, law enforcement Facebook, law enforcement police blotters and media sources. But he admitted that the easiest is to grab were the media sources. Law enforcement is clinical. The media looks more subjectively at an incident.
Bryant deflected blame for the media’s overhyping and misuse of his data.
“If the numbers are misleading, the journalist didn’t do their homework, you could make that argument,” Bryant said during the previous interview. “The media zeroes in on it, not us. At one point we wanted to take mass shootings out of the loop, but the phone started ringing on a daily basis. It’s important to me that we’re not misinterpreted.”
USA TODAY is not the only national media source that still uses GVA’s faulty numbers. CNN maintains the “Mass Shootings in the US Fast Facts,” a webpage where the GVA data is updated, and CNN anchors frequently cite GVA’s numbers.
CNN defines a mass shooting just like the GVA, as “one that injured or killed four or more people, not including the shooter.”
The GVA’s all-inclusive definition is magic for CNN and any other member of the anti-gun media, because it creates much bigger numbers. For example, according to the GVA, there were 417 mass shootings in 2019. The FBI says there were 30, because it uses a much narrower and more realistic definition.
As a result, USA TODAY, CNN and other media outlets who use the GVA data are hooked, because once they publish the false numbers, there is no going back to the truth without a lot of explaining.
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About Lee Williams
Lee Williams, who is also known as “The Gun Writer,” is the chief editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. Until recently, he was also an editor for a daily newspaper in Florida. Before becoming an editor, Lee was an investigative reporter at newspapers in three states and a U.S. Territory. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a police officer. Before becoming a cop, Lee served in the Army. He’s earned more than a dozen national journalism awards as a reporter, and three medals of valor as a cop. Lee is an avid tactical shooter.
The media intentionally fails to differentiate between the community of responsible gun owners and criminals that use ever tool that they can get their hands on to commit their various crimes.
I figured out how it works and why they lie. I have watched many proceedings where selected congressional staff have hearings as well as when they support or contest a bill on the floor and this is what happens. The lie is printed by the New Yak post, CNN, CNBC, Bloomturd, The Hill, etc. and the legislator submits states evidence from an article of lies as if it is the truth and correct and it is to be used as part of the measure of what is going on if something should be passed or if an action should be… Read more »
Bridges is a bald-faced liar. I live in Florida and there have not been six “mass shootings” this year. USA Today is good for two things: 1. wrapping fish and 2. starting a fire. Otherwise it is on a par with Donald Duck, Tarzan, Yogi Bear, and Marvel comic books and cartoons. No, I am wrong. The cartoons and comic books are far more relevant!
While it’s obvious that most of the legacy media (and much of the new media) lies pathologically about guns, we should also be aware of and recognize that they also lie about a great many other issues as well.
I didn’t like what USA Today put out 40 years ago. And that’s about how long it’s been since I read them.
An informed and thinking person may disagree with USA Today reporting.
Reporting? Or propaganda???
Propaganda well done is hard work. Hard work appears to be beyond the capabilities of these so-called researchers and so-called journalists. Propaganda well done cannot look like a script from Comedy Central. That is what finally happened to Soviet propaganda when the writers got lazy. It became a form of comedy and not ideology in the Soviet Union and the client states of the Warsaw Pact. So the operative word here is ‘lazy.’ Writing effective propaganda requires a continuous process of self-validation through facts and information that will be difficult to dispute. You need to stay at least 85% within… Read more »
Now anticipating the anti-gun media to start using ammo sales figures to support claims today of a trillion mass shootings that are coming soon. “This year, there are a trillion mass shootings waiting to happen, based on GVA figures for 2025 ammunition sales. Every bullet sold is a mass shooting casualty waiting to happen, and bullets are sold 50 at a time, 100 at a time, and 1000 at a time. Sometimes in multiple thousands to a single buyer.” And of course they will have used the word “bullet” incorrectly, but that is completely inconsequential when they purposely misuse nomenclature… Read more »
“USA Today Warns Readers Gun Owners May Disagree With Its Reporting”. Yeah, that’s why I cancelled my subscription in 1979 and haven’t bought one since!