Gun control debated on ‘The View’ as Whoopi Goldberg quotes bogus stat

Will Cain was the guest host on The View Wednesday and the topic of gun control was initiated by Whoopi Goldberg saying that there have been 74 school shootings since the Newtown shootings in 2012.

“I don’t think it is the 74th,” Cain said. “That’s a stat put out by this group called Everytown USA, who is for gun control. We know a couple stats, these are by Pew and the FBI. Gun violence is down drastically over the last 20 years. I mean, drastically. What I will tell you is, every time these terrible things happen, we want to learn a lesson. And it’s understandable — we want to grab sanity. … What can we do to ensure this doesn’t happen? I don’t know. Crazy people exist.”

See the note below on this statistic. Watch the full video over at The Wrap.

“I will suggest this,” Cain continued. “I think when the media reports so breathlessly and salaciously on these things, these guys copycat each other.”

Sherri Shepherd countered, saying “you can do more damage in five seconds with a gun than you can with a knife.”

“If you’ve got semi-automatics, I’m not talking about just a regular ‘pow-pow,’ if you’ve got a semi-automatic and you’re mentally challenged — do you really want a person to be able to get that?” Shepherd said.

Jenny McCarthy confessed that “I am a gun owner and I am proud of it, but I also think there’s needs to be some changes…When we indict guns, too often we indict people like you, Jenny, or me, who actually own guns,” Cain remarked. “We’re law-abiding people.”

“I also am a gun owner,” Goldberg said. “But I will tell you: As a responsible gun owner, I don’t have any problem with you checking my background. I got no problem — check whatever you need to check to make everybody else feel comfortable. And I’m OK with that.”

“And I will say as an effective problem solver, you need to make sure we focus on the right things,” Cain responded. “If gun violence is down, why is that what we’re focusing on?”

The stat quoted by Goldberg, put out by Everytown USA, a group opposed to gun ownership can be found here. The data (74 shootings) includes ALL FIREARM DISCHARGES on a school premise, including accidental firearm discharge and suicide attempts NOT just assault cases or homicides.