When fact-checkers turn their gunsights on the firearms community, they risk hitting innocent targets—and the recent misstep by PolitiFact on a David Hogg-related claim shows just how easy it is to shoot blanks. Matthew Hoy’s analysis reveals that these gatekeepers often rely on narrow interpretations of language and statistics, Hogg’s claimed “million”-signature petition against background checks being no exception; they accepted his vague phrasing as truth without probing the actual petition signatures or methodology, thereby lending credibility to inflated figures that are far below the claimed level. This particular instance exposes a broader pattern: checkers who are themselves immune to,