Booker Cites 'Thousands' of Gun Deaths Per Day Instead of 'Approximately 30'

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who’s running for Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D-N.J.) seat next year, fumbled gun-violence stats in a Sunday appearance on ABC’s This Week.

“Shame on us, because the tragedies haven’t stopped,” Booker said of a new CBS poll that shows support for new gun-control legislation at just 47 percent, down 10 points from December.

“There are still thousands of Americans that are being murdered every single day. We had an innocent man in my city injured by a handgun that didn’t come from our — the handguns in my city are not coming from within our state. And so this is very problematic. When you have the majority of the people, 90 percent Americans, 80 percent of gun owners agree on sensible gun reforms that would stop the carnage,” the mayor continued.

“I’m talking background checks. I’m talking punishments against straw purchases. We’re talking about secondary markets and making sure — imagine TSA saying, we’re not going to check 40 percent of the people that board our planes. That’s what we’re doing right now. A terrorist in our country can go to do — can’t get on a plane to go there, but could go to certain areas of our country and buy truckloads full of weapons,” he said. “Americans are in agreement on this. And the tragedies continue now.”

Soon after, Booker tweeted:

Just caught myself miss-speaking on ABC. Its hundreds being killed everyday not thousands. Sorry about that.

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) March 31, 2013

Then…

Sorry again, officially it is approximately 30 people murdered every day due to gun violence.

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) March 31, 2013

Thanks. Important to be accurate. Data matters. RT @itstim0thyy: Takes a man to admit he made a mistake & misspoke

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) March 31, 2013

And God Bless u 2 this Easter morn RT @at_russia: He goes from thousands a day killed to 30 a day- Just a typical propaganda-spewing liberal

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) March 31, 2013