WARNING: BAD LESBIANS O'Reilly, Wheeler

Brace yourself for a shock: It seems Bill O'Reilly has been spreading inflammatory disinformation.

On The O'Reilly Factor recently, "legal correspondent" Rod Wheeler told a harrowing tale of lesbian street gangs run riot across America. He concluded by asserting that many such gangs carry pink handguns and call themselves the "pink-pistol packing group." "These are lesbians that actually carry pink pistols," he told O'Reilly. "That's nine-millimeter Glocks. They use these. They commit crimes, and they cause a lot of hurt to a lot of people."

There is a group that calls itself the Pink Pistols, and it's full of lesbians—but it's actually a national gun-rights organization that is dedicated to protecting "the legal, safe, and responsible use of firearms for self-defense of the sexual-minority community."

"I think Mr. O'Reilly is conflating two different stories," Pink Pistols spokeswoman Gwen Patton tells us. "I have not heard of any gangs that are using this as a name. This is apocryphal. If there are any gangs like that, they're no relation to us whatsoever." (Indeed, a Nexis search fails to turn up any evidence of such gangs.)

Wheeler, reached for comment, says he is aware of Patton's group and its mission. He says he didn't mean to suggest the gangs he was talking about call themselves Pink Pistols, only that some of the members carry firearms that they've painted pink. He adds, "I didn't want to make that reference or that inference to [the pro-gun-rights Pink Pistols], and I was afraid it might come across like that, so I apologize."

The video from O'Reilly segment after the jump ...