Obama says it’s easier for teens to buy a Glock handgun than get a book. Really?
A lot of readers asked us to fact-check this claim from President Obama’s speech at the Dallas officers memorial ceremony this week: "We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book." We checked it out, and found no real factual basis for what he said. At a basic level, not all states allow people under 21 years old to buy a handgun, like a Glock. And as far as we know, there's no minimum age or a background check required to get a book or use the computer for free at a public library. So what was he talking about? The White House said he was making a larger point about the lack of opportunity and ready access to guns in many communities, particularly lower-income areas. Sure, it’s accurate that there are under-invested communities. And it's fair to say that in some communities, it’s not that hard for teens to illegally get a gun from a fellow gang member or family member. But the White House could not directly support the president’s claim, which was a catchy piece of rhetoric based in no real facts. We awarded Three Pinocchios. (Our friends at PolitiFact rated it Mostly False, the equivalent of Three Pinocchios.) Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this e-mail was forwarded to you, sign up here for the weekly newsletter. Hear something fact-checkable? Send it here, we’ll check it out. Fact-checking claims on violence and race We have once again returned to claims about violence, race and shootings by and of police, following recent shootings. Mike Huckabee claimed: "More white people have been shot by police officers this past year than minorities." He cited The Washington Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of police shootings, chronicling the most comprehensive database of police shootings than any government agency had ever done before. Huckabee referenced the Post’s findings that of the 990 people shot in 2015, 948 people were male, 494 were white and 258 were black. But looking at crimes simply as the raw number of whites vs. blacks is misleading. By definition, there are fewer minorities. By rates — which is how criminologists generally track crime trends — blacks were three times as likely to be killed by police. We awarded Two Pinocchios for lack of context. We also spotted this claim circulating on Twitter: "The majority of job related deaths for police officers is due to traffic accidents." We didn’t rate it, as it was not quite a Geppetto Checkmark but still worth exploring. We found that traffic-related incidents are, indeed, the leading cause of officer deaths. But some involved criminal pursuit or someone intentionally running over an officer. The number and rate of police deaths is lower than in other industries like construction, farming/forestry and transportation operation, but police face a risk that is not really comparable to people in those jobs: being targeted in anti-police ambush attacks. Law enforcement, especially local police, face some of the highest rates of occupational injury and illness. | 
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