Updated at 1:26 p.m.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took to the floor of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday morning to call for gun control legislation, but in doing so he understated the number of gun deaths in Vermont by an order of magnitude.
“In my small state of Vermont, between 2011 and 2016, 42 people were killed by guns,” Sanders said in his remarks.
That’s the same window of time Vermont Public Radio focused on last year in a series documenting gun deaths in Vermont, but Sanders’ figure was way off. VPR’s reporting, which was based on data provided by the Vermont Department of Health, found that 420 people were killed by guns between 2011 and 2016.
In his remarks on the Senate floor, Sanders did not cite a source for the number he used. It was also included in a press release his office issued Wednesday morning.
Later, Sanders spokesman Dan McLean said that the senator had intended to describe gun homicides during that six-year period. Citing the VPR report, McLean noted that 47 Vermonters were killed by someone else in those years and that five of those incidents involved law enforcement, “making 42 the most accurate number we had.”
According to VPR, another 373 people killed themselves using guns.
In his remarks, Sanders named 10 people killed by guns in Vermont in recent high-profile cases, including four killed by Jody Herring in 2015. He also called for mandatory universal background checks, which would close the so-called “gun show loophole,” and for an assault weapons ban.
Earlier this year, Sanders fumbled numbers related to a mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla. Writing on Twitter on February 14, he claimed there had already been 18 school shootings in 2018. He later issued a correction, noting that the number was “incorrect and inflated.”
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
“..42 people were killed by guns, Sanders said…” “47 Vermonters were killed by someone else in those years and that five of those incidents involved law enforcement, making 42 the most accurate number we had.
“data provided by the Vermont Department of Health, found that 420 people were killed by guns”
According to VPR, another 373 people killed themselves using guns…
The math works out, so where is the beef?
You goin’ to legislate against suicide by gun?? IT is already a capitol offense to kill oneself, so using a gun to do it doesn’t matter.
Guns are going to always be around. Keeping people happy might be a better use of time.
You cant blame Bernie for getting the numbers wrong. How is a old fart like him supposed to keep it all straight he has to much to think about like- is my crook wife going to jail.
– is she going to take me down with her.
– how much more can I steal from the good people of Vermont.
You know stuff like that is far more important than actual numbers and facts when it comes to peoples god given 2nd amendment rights.
#timetovotethebaldguysout
Ole Socialist Sanders never can get anything right. He has crap for brains and what little he has, he’s thinking of other things like citizen said, all sanders is thinking about ,is wifey pooh going to take him down too?. Plus he is counting his money that he’s making by going to other states to campaign for other democrats.Yup more interested in making money instead of listening to Vermonters.He needs to leave Vermont. Go live in California.!!!
Sounds like you are bitter that he’s doing so well. There are 100 more things you could be bitching about besides Bernie’s quoted stats.
“OMG! Bernie misquoted numbers…twice!”
God didn’t give us the amendments rights men did .Just saying .
I am certainly no fan of Bernie Sanders but seriously, why is this even a story? A doddering old fool flubbed some numbers. Its not really worthy of a news story.
Bernie’s ol’ buddy, the recently deceased Peter Diamondstone, said ‘Bernie’s gift was ‘cunning’. Yep, the only thing good old ‘Mr. Authentic has going for him is cunning.
That is what we need in Washington; the cunning.
The nation is saved!!
Roy a doddering old fool flubbed some numbers is exactly why this is a story. If Bernie cant get the number of people killed in his own state correct how can we trust him to get anything else correct. He is to old to lead. He is so old and forgetful that he cant even campaign in his own state. That is why he spends all of his time in California or Iowa. He forgot he represents the people of Vermont. He thinks Vermonters are just there to pick up the campaign bill. Instead of fighting the 1% Bernie only thinks of how he can become a 1%er.
#timetovotethebaldguysout
Sevendays perfectly illustrates (apparently inadvertently, given the headline) Vermont gun owners’ frustration over the current feeding frenzy against our gun rights.
Empirical data: in a recent 5 year period 89% of gun homicides in VT were suicides. The 10% of deaths representing homicides (the other 1% are police related) included no school shootings, no use of bump stocks, and only one “mass shooting”. That incident involved a bolt action deer hunting rifle. The recent alleged close call in Fair Haven featured a shotgun with non-detachablel magazine. It was foiled not through laws but by the courageous decision by someone with knowledge to take personal responsibility for their safety and alert authorities.
Conclusion & Action Plan (per Gov. Scott, Sen.s Sanders, Leahy, Rep. Welch, and student organizers):
-ban bump stocks
-ban “assault weapons” (sic)
-ban detachable “high capacity” magazines
-demote 18, 19, and 20 year old adults back to the legal status of minors
-bypass Due Process through empowering the Executive branch to seize guns that are unrelated to any alleged criminal wrong-doing
-demonize VT NRA members for their “complicity” in mass murders and for daring to question the need for “common sense gun reform”
Reasonable, common sensical, and evidence-based? Absolutely, but only in a world where black is white and up is down! Apparently Washington D.C. and Montpelier are among those places…
looking forward to voting for Bernie in 2020.
Why is this even an article? This is essentially ‘fake news’.
Bernie is not wrong, he was referring to gun homicides, not the politically charged topic of “gun deaths”. If you pay attention to what he is saying and who he highlighted in his speech, all of the people mentioned were killed in gun homicides.
Suicide is an entirely different issue and to try and lump that into this discussion to inflate the death toll by having a click-bait article is both ingenious at best and manipulative at worst.
Very shameful.
I think waiting periods (esp) and universal background checks would matter for the incidence of suicide by firearms.
I think addressing mental illness would matter for incidences of suicide by guns, ropes, razors, knives, cars, and pills. Fix mental health in America and fix a ton of problems. But gun control will fix nothing.
People such as “citizen” and his ilk are simply angry at their continually being outvoted by their fellow Vermonters. Bernie has won eleven, count them, eleven consecutive Federal elections, and not one of them even close. Mass repudiation such as this drives these disappearing conservatives crazy, knowing their fellow Vermonters roundly reject their positions. Hence they get all puffy and angry,and spew their bile in Commet Sections everywhere. Sad.
Judging by the number of likes most of my post about Bernie get I would say his time is limited.
Judging by the number of likes most of my post about Bernie get I would say his time is limited.
Add up all of the likes you have ever received in your entire life from posting on Seven Days and you only have a fraction of a percent of what you need to vote Bernie out. LIke it or not, Bernie will be the senator of Vermont for as long as he wants.
Well if you like a socialist draft dodger to represent our state, who only cares about himself and his books, who was bought off to leave the presidential race guess he will be a senator. Tho he is getting feeble minded..and seems to spend most of his time in other states promoting his laughable book, when he is supposed to be representing Vermont… but hey he’s a millionaire now, he cares less about Vermonters.. He needs to go back to Brooklyn NY…
Citizen, you may be the funniest comedian in America. By the likes you get Bernie’s time is limited, huh? A whopping three of four Vermonters vote for Bernie, and those “likes” are the only ones that count. The screed is your creed, and your arguments are the pathetic rantings of one whose own fellow citizens reject as silly. I get as many likes as you for photos of my newly washed car. You’re simply a sore loser. (PS -get ready to lose again as Vermonter will overwhelmingly choose to re-elect Bernie this coming November. You like apples? Well how do like those apples, bub?)
John I was not aware that socialist like yourself could even afford cars or supported the drilling for evil oil that it takes to run a car. And judging by the election of the most awesome president ever Trump I would say millions agree with me not you. Big picture John not just small view of a few socialist in New England. Try thinking for yourself it is so liberating. Group think is the death to democracy.
#timetovotethebaldguysout
How cute, Citizen. Faux-intellectualism is such a good medium for you! Enjoy the coming blue tsunami.
PS – you’ll have to forgive us in the future when we remind you, over and over and over again, that you called Donald Trump “the most awesome President ever.” It will be fun when the day comes that you have to choke on those words. Enjoy!
I never knew you could fit so many trolls under one bridge…
I find it intersting that people want to throw suicides into “gun violence” numbers.
I support both a woman’s right to choose, and death with dignity. I also support, under VERY LIMITED circumstances, capital punishment, which is the taking of a human life by the state. If some one wishes to kill themselves, yes, it is a poor and permanent solution to often temporary problems, and absolutely it is unfortunate for their loved ones. But can we ethically say that killing yourself to avoid a few weeks of extreme pain but you’ll be dead in a few months anyway is ok, but ending your life if you’re going to be living for years in misery and humiliation and moderate pain due to an incurable condition is not? Or that people who can’t pry open the little capsules that state approved suicide requires are just SOL, sucks to be them?
Nope. Suicide, by whatever means, is not violence against others. Yourself, maybe. But… am I your owner? Can I stop you from taking your life? It’s your life, it’s your right to choose. Even I think it’s a stupid choice, it isn’t my right to make it for you. Its your life, your body.
So shockingly Bernie didn’t screw up the numbers. We had 42 case that apply.
Now if only we’d get him to talk about some other numbers… preferably under oath….