A broadcast claim misstated how semi-automatic firearms function by saying they can fire dozens of bullets with one trigger pull. Semi-automatic firearms fire one bullet per trigger pull. The erroneous remark followed a deadly attack at a Minneapolis Catholic church that killed two children and injured 17 people, including 14 children; the shooter was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot and was armed with a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol, according to police. Social media users and right-leaning accounts criticized the erroneous claim as factually inaccurate, fear-mongering, and misleading, sharing clips and demands for correction.
These things can shoot dozens of bullets, you know, in just one trigger pull, right? And so what happens in this case is, sometimes they have enough time to to reload, Perez told Pamela Brown. It's one of the most horrific things for students to be sitting there. You saw this in Uvalde, you see this in Newtown, repeatedly, where a shooter has enough time to reload. And the horrific nature of this is, you know, for little kids to be facing this.
Steve Guest, a former communications advisor for Sen. Ted Cruz (R), shared a clip of Perez's comment to X soon afterwards. That is factually inaccurate, Guest said. A semi-automatic rifle fires one bullet per pull of the trigger. False anti-gun fear mongering during breaking news is sick. A number of other right-leaning X accounts shared their displeasure with Perez as well. Fake news using a tragedy to push lies about how guns work.
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