Michael Moore Claims Mass Shootings Are As American As Apple Pie

Director Michael Moore recently claimed in a series of tweets that mass shootings are as American as apple pie.

Moore reacted to the recent murder of 10 individuals including police officer Eric Talley in Boulder, Colorado by Ahmed Al Aliwi Alissi.

Montclair Film, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

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According to the Boulder Police Department, “at approximately 2:40 p.m. on Monday, March 22, officers were dispatched to the King Soopers at 3600 Table Mesa Drive for a report of an active shooter.”

They “arrived on scene within minutes and immediately entered the store and engaged the suspect. There was an exchange of gunfire during which the suspect was shot. No other officers were injured. The suspect was then taken into custody at 3:28 p.m. He was transported to the hospital for treatment and is now in stable condition.”

Source: City of Boulder

Moore took to Twitter on March 23rd at 8:35 p.m. ET where he wrote, “Now that we know who the Boulder killer is, we will soon see the pundits & bigots harp on ‘Middle Eastern’ & ‘Islamic.'”

He added, “But make no mistake: a young man with anger issues & easy access to semi-automatic weapons who shoots up a nice town in Colorado is as American as apple pie.”

Source: Michael Moore Twitter

Moore would follow that tweet up sharing an image of the Statue of Liberty. He would write, “The life of Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa shows that people can come from all over the world and truly assimilate into our beloved American culture.”

Given his previous tweet, it’s safe to say that he’s once again reiterating that mass shootings are part of American culture.

Source: Michael Moore Twitter

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If it still wasn’t clear what Moore’s intention was with the Statue of Liberty tweet, he followed it up with another one.

In this one, he wrote, “18yrs ago tonite: “The Oscar goes to ‘Bowling for Columbine’”. We’d hoped Columbine would be the LAST of these mass shootings. The film said gun violence was just sooo American(genocide, slavery, war).My acceptance speech, the the 5th nite of the Iraq War:

Source: Michael Moore Twitter

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Mass shootings are not as American as apple pie as Michael Moore claims. 

Looking at 2019 FBI data, there were only 28 active shooter incidents. Of those 28 incidents only 12 of them met the FBI’s “mass killing” definition. In those 28 incidents there 247 casualties with 97 killed and 150 wounded.

Source: FBI

The FBI defines an active shooter as “one or more individuals engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area. Implicit in this definition is the shooter’s use of one or more firearms. The active aspect of the definition inherently implies that both law enforcement personnel and citizens have the potential to affect the outcome of the incident based upon their responses to the situation.”

If you compare that to the number of violent crimes in the United States in 2019, it’s clear mass shootings are not as American as apple pie, in fact it’s the opposite. The FBI reported there were 1,203,808 violent crimes in 2019.

That means active shooter crimes only accounted for .0023% of all violent crimes committed in the United States in 2019.

Prognosic, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

If you look at just the amount of murders, the FBI reports there were 16,425 murders in 2019. That means the murders committed by active shooters was only 0.59% of all murders committed in the United States.

The data makes it very clear that mass shootings are not as American as apple pie since it doesn’t even make up a significant percentage of the murders and violent crimes committed in the United States. 

And most American citizens are not committing crimes. The FBI reports that “the 2019 statistics show the estimate rate of violent crime was 366.7 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants.” Again not as American as apple pie.

W.carter, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The American Pie Council claims that 36 million Americans identify apple pie as their favorite pie. And while they don’t have specific numbers on apple pie, they do report that approximately 186 million pies are sold just in grocery stores across the country. That doesn’t include restaurants, price clubs, or food service sales.

36 million people saying apple pie is a whole lot more than 28 active shooter incidents. Mass shootings are not as American as apple pie and anyone trying to tell you otherwise is a liar.

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