Last week Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) shared a frightening statistic about shooting deaths in America, but it turns out her number was wildly inaccurate.
The actual number of gun violence deaths in the United States is 109 per day, as PolitiFact pointed out Wednesday, but Omar said it was 500 per day.
Last week, Omar tweeted, "Gun violence is an epidemic. Every day on average 500 people die from gun violence. How many more lives will we let gun violence claim?"
Supporting my colleagues’ call on Senate Majority Leader to vote on H.R. 8, 1112 & 1158.
Gun violence is an epidemic.
Every day on average 500 people die from gun violence. How many more lives will we let gun violence claim?
Retweeting: https://t.co/ty5taOLeOC— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) June 5, 2019
The latest available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found the 109 figure. Sixty percent of those deaths are from suicide.
Those defending Omar argue that despite the fact that her tweet addressed domestic gun control policy, she may have been referring to the average number of gun deaths worldwide. Although, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, in 2018, that number was 685.
It is not clear where exactly Omar found her statistic of 500.
Omar’s tweet was promoting the House of Representatives' recently passed bill enforcing new background check requirements for gun transfers in the U.S.