Fact Check: Email was wrong about recent mass killers being liberals
Posted: March 14, 2013 - 8:52pm |
Updated: April 4, 2013 - 12:01pm
By
Carole Fader
Times-Union readers want to know:
An email says that recent mass killers were all progressive liberals and most were registered Democrats. Is that true?
The viral email lists the shooters in the killings at Fort Hood, Columbine High School, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo. and Newtown, Conn., as being registered Democrats. “Instead of registering and banning firearms,” the email says,”possibly we should register and ban progressive liberal Democrats.”
A look at whatÂ’s known about the suspects pretty much debunks this viral email.
The information in the email seems to have originated with Roger Hedgecock, a former mayor of San Diego and now a lobbyist, lecturer and conservative radio talk show host. In his radio broadcast, Hedgecock did not provide any evidence in any of the cases, making assumptions in some and inaccuracies in others.
The email assigns a Democrat tag to Adam Lanza, the Newtown, Conn., shooter, because, it says, Connecticut has almost twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans. That is true (815,713 to 449,648, according to the latest state records) and it is also true that President Barack Obama carried Connecticut in the past two presidential elections.
But to assume that Lanza was a Democrat because of that makes an awfully large reach. Incidentally, as of the last election, there were 5,364 people registered as Republicans in Newtown, and 4,505 registered as Democrats. And Newtown went for Mitt Romney 51.7 percent to 47 percent, according to official election results.
NO PARTY TAGS IN VIRGINIA OR TEXAS
There is no proof of Fort Hood suspect Nidal HasanÂ’s political affiliation. He registered to vote in Roanoke County, Va., where he lived before being sent to Fort Hood, according to a Nov. 9, 2009, story in the Roanoke Times. Virginia does not allow registration by party, so he wouldnÂ’t have been registered as a Democrat.
Hasan could have registered in Texas when sent to Fort Hood, but Texas also does not register by party. If he voted in the Democratic primary in Texas, that would be his affiliation until a general election, in which he could have voted for whomever he wished, according to Texas voting law.
But HasanÂ’s voting habits have remained undisclosed; thereÂ’s absolutely no evidence that he is a registered Democrat.
Since Virginia does not have partisan registration, it would have been impossible for Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho to register as a Democrat there. Cho and his family were permanent residents of the U.S. as South Korean nationals, according to a Washington Post article that quoted the Department of Homeland Security.
While some Green Card holders can vote in state and local elections in a few states, they cannot do so in Virginia as all registered voters must be U.S. citizens.
ERRORS MADE BY BREITBART BLOGGER
Hedgecock’s allegation that Colorado theater shooting suspect James Holmes was a registered Democrat was based on Breitbart blogger Joel B. Pollack, who said he found Holmes’ voter registration records. But it was later determined that those records — though of a Holmes of a similar age — were not those of the suspect.
Breitbart later retracted the claim, saying: “Newly released information on the suspect’s birthdate (which, as indicated in our initial report, was a slight mismatch), combined with new details Breitbart News has obtained about the suspect’s likely addresses, together suggest that the suspect may, in fact, not have been registered to vote.”
Unfortunately, several conservative websites continued to run the incorrect information.
Dylan Klebold, 17, and Eric Harris, 18, the Columbine killers, were not old enough to vote, and Hedgecock acknowledges that. But claims that their parents were Democrats and progressive liberals have no proof. Both youth admired Timothy McVeigh, according to published reports, not Ted Kennedy, as the email purports. There is no substantiation that the families were registered Democrats.
Fact Check: Email was wrong about recent mass killers being liberals | members.jacksonville.com
