Fox News host Trey Gowdy is facing intense backlash after he falsely claimed that mass shootings are “almost always” committed by “young, white males” before calling for increased gun control measures.

The former congressman turned Fox News host was discussing the Annunciation Catholic School shooting in Minneapolis, which left two young children dead and several others wounded when a transgender-identifying individual opened fire on a school-wide mass. The gunman, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, took his own life behind the building after carrying out the attack.

When reacting to the shooting during a panel discussion, Gowdy argued that increased gun control measures are needed to prevent mass shootings.

“Our system is reactive. Something bad happens, we react to it. And what people are crying for now is how can we prevent this? How can we stop it? And the only way to stop it is to identify the shooter ahead of time or keep the weapons out of their hands,” he said.

“And so we’re going to have to have a conversation of freedom versus protecting children. I mean, how many school shootings does it take before we’re going to have a conversation about keeping firearms out?”

Gowdy then repeated the verifiably false lie that mass shootings are “almost always” carried out by “young, white males.”

“I mean, did anyone this morning think, I wonder if that was a female? Did any of y ‘all think that? I mean, there’s been one school shooting involving a female. One at Tennessee. But other than that, it is usually young white males.”

It is unclear which measures Gowdy believes could have prevented the shooting, as the Minneapolis Police Department has confirmed that Westman was not previously known to law enforcement and did not have a criminal record.

As to the claims about mass shootings “always” being carried out by “young, white males,” there is no data to support this claim. When accounting only for spree killers, or killers who target a location with the intent to indiscriminately kill, such instances are incredibly rare and break down largely along population percentages.

Data sets on spree killers are also inconsistent, as there are several definitions of “mass shooting” used when collecting them by outlets like Statista and the Rockefeller Institute of Government. These data sets also exclude gang shootings and other incidents related to criminal activity.