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Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help. More Info ### I would like to contribute One Time Monthly Yearly Join Now ![](\\" ![](\\" Claudia Tenney stated on February 21, 2018 in a radio interview: \"So many of these people that commit the mass murders end up being Democrats.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"pants- fire\\"](\\" * New York * Guns * Claudia Tenney ![\\"Rep.](\\" Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-Utica, claimed many mass murderers turn out to be Democrats. By Dan Clark February 23, 2018 ![\\"Paul](\\" By Paul Specht February 23, 2018 # Do many mass shooters \'end up being Democrats\', as Rep. Tenney said? No An upstate New York member of Congress made national headlines when she suggested many mass shooters were Democrats. Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-Utica, was speaking with a radio host from Albany, N.Y., about how to prevent future mass shootings when she made the claim. \"It\'s interesting that so many of these people that commit the mass murders end up being Democrats, but the media doesn\'t talk about that either,\" Tenney said on Feb. 21, 2018. The host of the radio show did not ask Tenney to back up her claim, but several reporters on Twitter did. Her office sent out a statement from Tenney that evening: \"I am fed up with the media and liberals attempting to politicize tragedies and demonize law-abiding gun owners and conservative Americans every time there is a horrible tragedy,\" Tenney said in the statement. \"While we know the perpetrators of these atrocities have a wide variety of political views, my comments are in response to a question about the failure to prosecute illegal gun crime. I will continue to stand up for law-abiding citizens who are smeared by anti-gun liberal elitists.\" Tenney did not answer questions about her claim at a press event the next day. Her office has not provided any support for the claim. (A lawmaker in North Carolina made a similar claim this week as well. Read more about that here.) We wondered if there was any truth to Tenney’s claim. Do many mass shooters turn out to be Democrats? Mass shooters since Columbine There is no universal definition for mass shootings. We looked at 19 shootings that have received significant national media coverage since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. More than eight people were killed in each of the shootings. We found very few cases in which the political affiliation of the shooter could be verified. Omar Mateen, the shooter who killed 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016, was registered as a Democrat in 2006. He voted in the Florida primary in 2016, according to reporting from Politico. A dating profile for Chris Harper Mercer, who killed nine people at a community college in Oregon in 2015, said he was a Republican, according to reporting from CBS News. There was no evidence of his political affiliation beyond the profile. A friend of Aaron Alexis, who killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard in 2013, said in a CNN interview that the shooter was \"more of a liberal type.\" There were no other reports of his political affiliation. Politicians were the victims of a couple of recent shooting rampages that weren’t on our list of 19 mass shootings. In 2017, 66-year-old James Thomas Hodgkinson shot and injured six people at a congressional baseball game in Virginia — nearly killing House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. Hodgkinson volunteered for the presidential campaign of Democrat Bernie Sanders and apparently targeted the Republican team. In 2011, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner opened fire in Tucson at an event hosted by Rep. Gabby Giffords, an Arizona Democrat. Loughner killed six and injured 13 others, including Giffords. Authorities reported that he was obsessed with Giffords. Inaccurate reporting There was speculation about the political leanings of some of the other shooters. #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" black/4590875651af69b2c789ceab409664dd.jpg\\") ![](\\" black/72988380e8c8bd188dc360d11552e4a0.jpg\\") X posts stated on September 4, 2024 in an X post “BREAKING: Apalachee High School shooter has been identified as non-binary trans girl Samantha Hyde.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"pants- fire\\"](\\" By Loreben Tuquero • September 5, 2024 ABC News falsely reported that James Holmes, who killed 12 people in Colorado in 2012, was a member of the conservative tea party. ABC apologized for the error. Breitbart News reported that Holmes may have been a registered Democrat, but also walked back that claim. Holmes’ political affiliation was never verified. Fake news websites claimed Devin Patrick Kelley, who killed 26 people in a Texas church last year, was linked to anti-fascist groups. PolitiFact debunked that claim. Websites made the same claim about Las Vegas shooter Stephen Craig Paddock. We debunked that, too. Paddock wasn’t registered to vote and his family said he didn’t have strong political views, according to a report from Fox News. There were also claims that Adam Lanza, who killed 20 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, was a Democrat. He was not registered to vote, according to the Washington Post. Most recently, our friends at Snopes debunked the claim that Nikolas Cruz, who allegedly killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, was a Democrat. A search of Florida’s voter database yielded no results for Cruz’s party affiliation. There was no reporting on the political leanings of the other 11 shooters. Is it relevant? Mass shooters are rarely motivated by a political agenda, experts told us. Mass shootings are often perpetrated by young men who are socially isolated or have a mental illness, experience a trauma or conflict that sends them reeling emotionally, and have easy access to guns, said Alan Lipman, professor at George Washington University Medical Center and founder of the Center for the Study of Violence. \"Their motives are almost always, without exception, nonpolitical. And they don’t describe themselves as having a particular political motivation,\" Lipman said. Some — like Dylann Roof, who killed nine people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015 — might channel their rage at a specific group of people, said James Alan Fox, criminologist at Northeastern University and author of \"Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder.\" But that doesn’t mean they’re acting on a Republican or Democratic mission, he said. \"Very few are motivated by any sort of political agenda in terms in parties. They might be anti-gay or anti-black or anti-white. You could argue those are political, I guess,\" he said. Even then, those beliefs are often born out of personal vendettas — not political propaganda, said Katherine Ramsland, professor of psychology at DeSales University. \"Look at Stephen Paddock. We don\'t know his motive,\" Ramsland said of the Las Vegas shooter. \"Devin Kelly — his political affiliation is secondary to his family disputes and need for payback. I just think it\'s overly simplistic to align a mass shooter\'s influence with a political ideology unless it\'s clear from the shooter that this was his (or her) driving issue.\" Other experts reacted similarly to the assertion that shooters tend to have common political beliefs. \"Most of the school shooters are children who wouldn’t know a conservative from a communist,\" said Jack Levin, Northeastern professor and co-director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict. \"The idea of associating politics with these mass murders is absurd. It has absolutely nothing to do with it.\" Lipman agreed: \"There is absolutely no evidence to show that mass killings are motivated by political ideologies of any type. All of the mass killings we’ve seen have been motivated by a lethal combination of a small subgroup of mental illnesses, and easy accessibility to weapons of mass killing during the peak symptomatology of those illnesses.\" Our ruling Tenney said, \"Many of these people that commit the mass murders end up being Democrats.\" There’s no proof to support that claim. The political affiliation of most of the mass shooters we looked at was either unreported or never verified. Experts said these events are rarely motivated by politics to begin with. Tenney walked back her claim later that day in a statement, saying \"we know the perpetrators of these atrocities have a wide variety of political views.\" We rate her claim Pants on Fire! Share the Facts 2018-02-23 17:56:49 UTC PolitiFact ![\\"PolitiFact\\"](\\" logo-big.jpg\\"/) 1 1 7 ![\\"PolitiFact](\\" pof.png\\") PolitiFact Rating: Pants on Fire \"So many of these people that commit the mass murders end up being Democrats.\" Claudia Tenney Congress member ![](\\" Wednesday, February 21, 2018 2018-02-21 Read More info #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources \"Focus on the State Capitol\", TALK 1300, Feb. 21, 2018 PolitiFact: How is a ‘mass shooting’ defined?, Oct. 4, 2017 \"FBI says it interviewed shooting suspect about terror ties\", POLITICO, June 12, 2017 \"What we know about Oregon shooter Chris Harper Mercer,\" CBS News, Oct. 1, 2015 \"‘He Was More of a Liberal Type’: CNN Guest Identifies Aaron Alexis as Having ‘Liked’ Obama Admin,\" Mediaite, Sept. 17, 2013 \"Giffords\'s future is up in the air,\" POLITICO, Jan. 6, 2012 \"ABC News, Brian Ross apologize for report suggesting shooting suspect tied to Tea Party,\" Fox News, July 20, 2012 \"Breitbart Blogger Falsely Accuses Colorado Shooter James Holmes of Being a Democrat,\" Hollywood Reporter, July 20, 2012 PolitiFact: Fake news: No proof Antifa, communism compelled Texas shooter Devin Kelley, Nov. 6, 2017 PolitiFact: Hoaxes, fake news about the Las Vegas massacre, Oct. 2, 2017 \"Las Vegas shooting: From ISIS to gambling debts, theories abound for shooter\'s motive,\" Fox News, Oct. 3, 2017 Snopes: Is this List of Democrat Shooters Accurate? Snopes: Was the Florida School Shooter a Registered Democrat? \"Frustrating search for Newtown, Conn., shooter Adam Lanza\'s motive,\" Tampa Bay Times, Dec. 24, 2012 Alan Lipman, professor at George Washington University Medical Center and founder of the Center for the Study of Violence Katherine Ramsland, professor in psychology program at DeSales University Op-ed by David Sterman, senior program associate at New America’s International Security Program, \"It’s foolish to try to simplify the motives of terrorists,\" published in the Washington Post on June 23, 2016. Column by Katherine Ramsland, professor in psychology program at DeSales University, \"Mass Murder Motives,\" published July 20, 2012 in Psychology Today. ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Dan Clark ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on May 30, 2018 in a tweet: Rep. Dan Donovan \"voted for Tax Cuts\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Dan Clark • June 4, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Christine Quinn stated on May 23, 2018 in a presentation at the State Democratic Convention: New York state has the \"second highest millionaires tax in the nation.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Dan Clark • May 31, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on May 10, 2018 in a tweet: \"Senator Cryin’ Chuck Schumer fought hard against the Bad Iran Deal, even going at it with President Obama, & then Voted AGAINST it! Now he says I should not have terminated the deal\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By Dan Clark • May 24, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Edward Cox stated on May 1, 2018 in an interview on The Capital Pressroom: Marc Molinaro \"has cut taxes, his budget now is lower than it was six years ago\" in Dutchess County ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Dan Clark • May 24, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Hakeem Jeffries stated on April 29, 2018 in an interview on CNN: President Donald Trump’s budget \"threatened to cut $2 trillion from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Dan Clark • May 4, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Chele Farley stated on April 23, 2018 in an interview on Capital Tonight: \"Kirsten Gillibrand has put forward 331 bills since she\'s been in Congress. Do you know how many of them have been passed into law? Zero!\" ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Dan Clark • May 4, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" James Tedisco stated on April 13, 2018 in a blog post : After the minimum wage for tipped workers was raised in Maine, the state \"reversed that decision due to restaurant employees organizing en masse against the measure.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By Dan Clark • April 26, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kirsten Gillibrand stated on April 20, 2018 in a tweet: \"Black and Latino people in NYC are arrested at TEN times the rate of white people for virtually the same rate of marijuana usage.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By Dan Clark • April 25, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Andrew Cuomo stated on April 11, 2018 in a conversation with reporters: \"I think we\'re actually ahead\" on legalizing marijuana for recreational use in New York state. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Dan Clark • April 17, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Marc Molinaro stated on April 2, 2018 in a conversation with reporters: New York has \"among the highest tax burdens of any state in the nation\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By Dan Clark • April 12, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Brian Kolb stated on March 31, 2018 in a statement on the state budget: This year’s state budget \"continues to direct millions in taxpayer dollars in advertising to the failing Start-Up NY program\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Dan Clark • April 9, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Cynthia Nixon stated on March 26, 2018 in a press conference: Four years after Gov. Andrew Cuomo promised universal pre-K, \"79 percent of 4-year olds outside New York City lack full-day pre-K.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Dan Clark • March 30, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Tom King stated on March 26, 2018 in a radio interview: A bill in Congress \"will ban all semi-automatic weapons, including pistols and shotguns. So, yes, they are coming to take away our guns.\" ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Dan Clark • March 29, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Andrew Cuomo stated on March 12, 2018 in a press conference: \"The only housing authority in the state that we have actually given money to is NYCHA.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Dan Clark • March 23, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Cynthia Nixon stated on March 20, 2018 in her announcement to run for governor: \"Since taking office, Andrew Cuomo has given massive tax breaks to corporations and the super rich.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Dan Clark • March 23, 2018 ### Do many mass shooters \'end up being Democrats\', as Rep. Tenney said? No * ![](\\" ![](\\" National Republican Senatorial Committee stated on August 28, 2024 in an Instagram ad: Elissa Slotkin “gave your hard-earned tax money to illegal immigrants.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Caleb McCullough • September 6, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 5, 2024 in a post: Video shows Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz dancing to Beyoncé in a cowboy hat and crop top. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sara Swann • September 6, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" X posts stated on September 3, 2024 in X posts: A group of 32 armed Venezuelans took over an apartment building in Chicago. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sofia Ahmed • September 6, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 2, 2024 in una publicación en Instagram: \"Kamala Harris aboga por censurar X en Estados Unidos al estilo de Brasil si es elegida presidenta en noviembre”. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sofia Ahmed • September 6, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on August 28, 2024 in an ad: Project 2025 would defund K-12 schools. ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • September 6, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 4, 2024 in an Instagram post: “The entire family of Kamala Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz—they are all supporting Donald Trump.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 6, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Josh Stein stated on September 5, 2024 in a press release: “Mark Robinson skips Board of Education vote on teacher bonuses to hold campaign event.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Paul Specht • September 6, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 4, 2024 in an Instagram post: An image shows the social media profile of the accused suspect in the Apalachee High School shooting. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 5, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Social Media stated on August 31, 2024 in a post: McDonald’s “said they have no record whatsoever of Kamala Harris ever working at any of their locations.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sara Swann • September 5, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" X posts stated on September 4, 2024 in an X post: “BREAKING: Apalachee High School shooter has been identified as non-binary trans girl Samantha Hyde.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Loreben Tuquero • September 5, 2024 Load more ### Support independent fact-checking. 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So many of these people that commit the mass murders end up being Democrats