CNN anchor Chris Cuomo retweeted a fake story about a student who claimed to be able to buy an AR-15 in “5 minutes,” and then doubled down when he was called out.
Cuomo retweeted the article, “I Was Able To Buy An AR-15 In 5 Minutes,” which shows a 2o-year-old student holding an AR-15 and claiming to have purchased it without going through a background check.
However, the student admitted in the article that he never actually finished filing out the paperwork — which would initiate the background check — to buy the AR-15. Instead, he shopped around for a bit, took photos with some guns, and asked for the advice of the shop owners.
“After he walked me through the paperwork, all five pages of it, I told him I changed my mind and wanted to think more before I bought an AR-15,” the student wrote. “He told me it wasn’t a problem and listed the store hours if I wanted to come back. I then said thank you and walked back to my car.”
Hey, @ChrisCuomo from CNN. Saw the article you retweeted: “I WAS ABLE TO BUY AN AR-15 IN 5 MINUTES”
Did you see the part where he admits to neither filling out the necessary paperwork (which would initiate the background check) NOR purchasing the AR-15? Weird. pic.twitter.com/wLfaiKCqaM
— Chet Cannon (@Chet_Cannon) February 21, 2018
People started pointing out that the kid never actually bought the AR-15, but Cuomo doubled down, stating, “Isn’t the point that the kid’s age and lack of ID wasn’t a deterrent?”
Isn’t the point that the kid’s age and lack of ID wasn’t a deterrent? and this isn’t all gun shops. Place I bought my shotgun basically goes farther than law requires and makes judgments about whom to sell to. Point is the system should be better https://t.co/sL1j0hYtTg
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) February 21, 2018
Right. You’re justifying sharing a false story to over a million people while screaming about “facts first”. Just breathtaking dishonesty. https://t.co/AnFBw4RzLx
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) February 21, 2018
The point is that the kid lied about buying a gun that he didn’t, and that you are now lying too.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) February 21, 2018
