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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Posts Misidentify Suspect in Kansas City Parade Shootings

Posts Misidentify Suspect in Kansas City Parade Shootings

Kansas City authorities charged two juvenile suspects with crimes connected to the Feb. 14 shootings at the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory celebration, in which one person was killed and 22 others were injured. Social media posts falsely identified one of the shooting suspects as “Sahil Omar, a 44 year old illegal.” A police spokesperson said that was a “fake claim.”

Internet Hoax Spreads False ID on Michigan State University Shooter

Internet Hoax Spreads False ID on Michigan State University Shooter

Police identified the suspect in the Feb. 13 mass shooting at Michigan State University as Anthony Dwayne McRae, who shot and killed himself. But a viral internet hoax used the photo of another man and falsely claimed that the suspect was named “Lynn Dee Walker.”

Baseless Claim of Odessa Shooter’s ‘Beto Sticker’

Baseless Claim of Odessa Shooter’s ‘Beto Sticker’

Viral posts on social media make the baseless claim that the shooter in Odessa, Texas, had a sticker on his car for Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. The Texas Department of Public Safety said there was no sticker on the car he was driving during the attack.

Viral Quote Falsely Attributed to McCarthy

Viral Quote Falsely Attributed to McCarthy

Facebook posts erroneously attribute a quote to House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy. He didn’t say that “there are no mass shootings in Japan because there are no video games there.”

The Response to the Congressional Baseball Shooting

The Response to the Congressional Baseball Shooting

A viral Facebook post claims that “not one Democrat called for gun control” after a 2017 shooting involving Republicans in Congress. While demands for legislative action were quieter, there were some.

Trump’s Mixed Record on Gun Control

Trump’s Mixed Record on Gun Control

When asked what he was going to do about the “gun problem,” President Donald Trump responded that “we have done much more than most administrations.” Trump has taken some action to strengthen federal gun control, but his administration also has eased gun restrictions.

Politics of Gun Violence

Politics of Gun Violence

In the aftermath of two deadly mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, U.S. political leaders made a series of statements on gun violence that were unsubstantiated, lacked context or were seemingly contradictory. Here we look at some of those statements and present the facts.

California Shooting Prompts ‘Crisis Actor’ Conspiracy

California Shooting Prompts ‘Crisis Actor’ Conspiracy

Q: Was Susan Orfanos, the mother of a shooting victim in Thousand Oaks, California, also interviewed by news outlets after other mass shootings in 2016 and 2017?

A: No. A Facebook post misidentifies two other women as Orfanos.