On Tuesday, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) pushed for more gun control in her state, claiming, “Guns are the number one killer of young people in America.”
Whitmer made the comments in Lansing, with members of the gun control lobby gathered behind her for Annual Advocacy Day.
Guns are the number one killer of young people in America. Let that sink in.
— Governor Gretchen Whitmer (@GovWhitmer) April 22, 2025
Not car accidents. Not cancer. Guns.
Thoughts and prayers won't cut it—and waiting on Washington won't either. We owe it to victims, survivors, parents, teachers, and students to end this epidemic. pic.twitter.com/QsV5LgrgQV
For years the left was called out for claiming guns were the number one cause of death for children in America. Breitbart News showed this claim to be false when President Joe Biden first made it on June 2, 2022. We noted the claim was based on reported 2020 CDC data, then dug into the data to find that 18- and 19-year-olds (i.e., people of voting age) had to be counted as children in order for Biden’s claim to be accurate.
But 18- and 19-year-olds are not children, and therefore, Biden’s claim was false.
Even though the claim was demonstrably false, it was repeated by Kamala Harris and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and by actresses Allysa Milano and Jennifer Lawrence.
When Whitmer addressed the topic Tuesday she shifted the focus to “young people” rather than children. She did not mention how many of the “young people” in question were gang members or street criminals.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly:
