Gun Violence

Did U.S. Senator Ted Cruz say, "Let's stop attacking pedophiles" at a congressional hearing? Yes, he did, but his spokesperson described that as a gaffe, "a verbal slip", and clarified that the senator opposed such crimes. The overall context of Cruz's remarks did not contradict his press office's clarification. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X…

Does a viral post accurately summarize Zohran Mamdani's words from a podcast recorded more than five years before he was sworn in as New York City mayor? No, that's not true: The quote was shortened, and it changed its meaning. A longer, more elaborate fragment of his speech shows that he suggested that it shouldn't be the police, but specially…

Did Rob Reiner say he wished the would-be Donald Trump assassin "hadn't missed"? No, that's not true: A source close to the family told Lead Stories the claim is "nonsense." Lead Stories found no evidence that Reiner ever said he wished the gunman had killed Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024. Social media posts claiming that "liberals are all butt…

Did Meta, the owner of the Threads social media platform, announce it had begun labeling some accounts with a warning that "This user is suspected of being part of a terrorist organization called Antifa. Please report any suspicious behavior."? No, that's not true: Users add the italicized phrase themselves at the bottom of their own posts. Neither Meta nor Threads…

Did the late Charlie Kirk say "Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously" as social media posts claim? No, that's not a precise quote: Attacking affirmative action, Kirk slammed by name four prominent liberal Black women . On his podcast, he specifically criticized Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, TV host Joy Reid, Supreme Court…

Did conservative activist Charlie Kirk, shot and killed September 10, 2025, ever say "If somebody ever shoots me through the neck during a speech in Utah in 2025, I lowkey think that rocks". No, that's not true: There's no public record of Kirk saying what was attributed to him by a social media post. That post showed a fake CNN…

Does a viral social media chart correctly represent the portion of the transgender population that had committed a mass shooting or the share of mass shootings according to gender identification between 2015 and 2025? No, that's not true: The charts supply no source for those numbers. Organizations that professionally track mass shootings using police records and public information had not,…

Does an image show the White House just "turned all red" and is this cause for a "major alert" somehow? No, that's not true: the photo used in a viral social media post is a screencap from a 2022 video. That footage showed the White House lit in orange to "raise gun violence awareness" on National Gun Violence Awareness Day.…

Does a viral post show an Australian man being arrested for trying to take AU$5,000 from his bank account at a Commonwealth Bank branch in a suburb of Sydney? No, that's not true: Police records show the man was arrested for behaving offensively in public, not for any financial crime. He was also charged with hindering officers who tried to…

Did FSU News report alleged Florida State University shooter Phoenix Ikner participated in an anti-Trump rally? No, that's not true: The now deleted section of the article that mentions and quotes Ikner is about "onlookers" who showed up at the protest. The article quotes him as saying "These people are usually pretty entertaining, usually not for good reasons" when talking…