Tipsheet

Bloomberg's Super Bowl Ad Features a Misleading Stat About Guns

Billionaire Bloomberg dropped $10 million on a Super Bowl ad as part of his campaign to buy the Democratic presidential nomination. The one-minute ad features a mother whose son, 20-years old at the time, was killed by another human being using a gun. The ad then claims that 2,900 so-called children die every year from gun violence. 

(Via Fox News)

In the raw and emotional one-minute spot, Calandrian Simpson Kemp recalls her son's death: "On a Friday morning, George was shot. George didn't survive. I just kept saying, 'You cannot tell me that the child that I gave birth to, is no longer here.' Lives are being lost every day. It is a national crisis."

A statistic immediately appears on the screen: "2,900 CHILDREN DIE FROM GUN VIOLENCE EVERY YEAR." The number is not attributed to any source.

However, a recent report from the Bloomberg-founded group Everytown for Gun Safety came up with that same number -- but only when it included teenagers ages 18 and 19 in the calculation. Bloomberg's advertisement makes no mention of older teenagers and suggests that the statistic is referring to younger children only. Washington Free Beacon reporter Stephen Gutowski found that once adults were removed from the calculation, the number dropped by nearly half.

Additionally, court documents from a Texas state appellate court reviewed by Fox News show that the victim referenced in the advertisement, George Kemp, was 20 years old at the time of his death.

Michael Bloomberg has outlined a sweeping gun control platform that includes universal background checks and permits for new gun purchasers, "red flag" screenings, closing the so-called loopholes for online sellers and gun shows, an "assault weapons" ban, and police notification of individuals who have been prohibited by the government from owning firearms.

In a recent interview, the heroic security guard, who took down a shooter a the West Freeway Church of Christ in Texas, told "Fox & Friends" that Bloomberg's dangerous gun measures would have only led to more carnage at the church shooting in December. Wilson took down the shooter in six seconds. Police arrived on the scene two minutes after someone called 911. 

Bloomberg's one-minute ad will air following the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday.