The Washington Post on Friday gave Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., three Pinocchios for claiming on the Senate floor this week that states with tougher gun laws are seeing fewer homicides.
“What we know is that in states that have imposed those reasonable limitations, there are less gun crimes,” said Murphy, who led the charge in the Senate this week for gun control votes. “There are less homicides.”
The Post’s fact check column said a review of the data that Murphy was citing shows that most gun deaths are suicides.
When those deaths are removed to examine only homicide, the data show that half of the 10 states with the lowest rates of gun-related deaths are states with less-restrictive gun laws.
The Post also said it’s also not clear that simply counting up a state’s gun laws is enough to determine trends in gun-related deaths. But it said Murphy’s biggest mistake is saying specifically that more gun laws are leading to fewer homicides.
“So, in this instance, Murphy’s claim is worthy of three Pinocchios because he specifically referred to homicides, rather than gun deaths,” the Post said.
Three Pinocchios means “significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions,” according to the Post.
