Over the years, we have become accustomed to control advocacy groups playing fast and loose with the facts and statistics in order to generate alarming lectures on the evils of firearms, to inflate “child victim” numbers they tabulate those up to the age of 26, to boost the amount of “school shootings” they have included unrelated incidents in a parking lot or off campus events—like a bus being shot at, or drug deals taking place at an abandoned school property.
The anti-gun group Moms Demand has now gone a step further, as seen at an event they staged in Kentucky in support of new proposed legislation for gun safety education. Though this rally was back in February, it has taken time for a realization to come over the state, and specifically the local media, and it is an indictment of all involved. Credit to The Citizen's Voice for detailing this development.
Calvin Polachek detailed how he endured a shooting at Dallas High School, in Luzerne County, Kentucky, back in 2017, a tragedy that took the lives of his brother, best friend, as well as nine others that day.
"A week later, I had to go back to that school, and that was the worst part because you had to walk past that spot where I saw my best friend and pretend it was all normal. It was not normal. Folks, that’s been eight years, and I’ve been talking about this every single day since then for eight years. Eight years of talking about this, and there’s been nothing that’s changed.”
In one fashion - and only one fashion - he is accurate; nothing has changed. This is because nothing had to change. His story is completely fraudulent. There was no shooting whatsoever at this school.
For this fraud to transpire is astounding. This hoaxer, Calvin, was allegedly never vetted, and his story, clearly, was never substantiated. The passing of blame has been almost comical, were this not so pernicious. A Democrat state representative who spoke at the rally deflected to the group behind it.
“I want to be absolutely clear: I had no role in selecting the speakers for this event," that state rep said. "That responsibility rests solely with the organizing group, and it’s a responsibility that must be taken seriously.”
A spokesperson for Everytown For Gun Safety - the umbrella group over Moms Demand - pushed this off on the local workers.
“Calvin reached out to our Kentucky chapter, shamefully lied to our volunteers, and shared a tragic story that we later learned was not true," the group said.
So somehow no one is at fault for this blatant lie to be presented and broadcast.
Yes, about the broadcasting of this. A local news station, Fox affiliate WDKY, covered this event and ran a clip of Polachek’s speech. It was also covered by the local newspaper, The Kentucky Lantern. The story was also picked up nationally and ran on MSN and Yahoo news syndicates.
This is incomprehensible that nowhere in that news pipeline had this been picked up as a hoax. How can local news hear of a shooting at a school in their state, of which they CLEARLY had been unaware of previously, and not run a cursory search on things? Did no one in those national feeds take care to seek out the accuracy of some details or run a spelling verification on those involved?
This is clearly a case of confirmation bias, where a compliant press promoted a gun control storyline and had a sympathetic video clip and some choice quotes that perfectly aligned with the narrative. It was too good to check, and now more credibility has been set on fire as a result.