Chris Cuomo slammed for pushing 'fake news' about gun laws - here's what he said

CNN's Chris Cuomo was assailed on social media by National Review's Charles Cooke for pushing a false story about how easy it is to purchase an AR-15 rifle.

Here's what happened

Cuomo retweeted a headline from an article where a 20-year-old with an expired license claimed to be able to buy an AR-15 at a gun store.

But the story was inaccurate because the man didn't buy the gun, he changed his mind before going through the background check.

"Two days after the worst mass shooting in American history," he wrote, "and my local gun shop in Virginia showed no hesitation in selling me an AR-15."

"In fact, they really wanted me to buy it," he said. "And I was only there for five minutes."

But later he admitted he didn't buy the gun, and therefore didn't go through the background check.

"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. 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."

When Cuomo was accosted with these facts, he defended retweeting the false story.

"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," he tweeted. 

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

"Lying? Look if you want to fight against background checks, make the case," Cuomo responded. "Whether it is calling the kids actors or LYING about how no laws could stop the shootings...that is the bs to call out. 97% of people want better checks. Why fight that?"

"This isn’t a response," Cooke replied. "This is a straw man that has nothing to do with what I said to you, and nothing to do with the topic at hand. You promoted somebody who lied, and then you lied about why you did it."

"It’s also a non sequitur, @ChrisCuomo," Cooke continued. "The debate at present is over whether to extend background checks to private sales, not over the existing FFL system that the kid you promoted would have gone through had he actually tried to buy a gun. As for the introduction of those . . ."

It’s also a non sequitur, @ChrisCuomo. The debate at present is over whether to extend background checks to private sales, not over the existing FFL system that the kid you promoted would have gone through had he actually tried to buy a gun. As for the introduction of those . . .

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) February 21, 2018

Some politicians have pondered whether to ban the sale of AR-15 rifles to those under the age of 21 after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting where 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz murdered 17 people with an AR-15.