Gun Stats

Stats

“In 2012, only 322 people were murdered with any kind of rifle, F.B.I. data shows.  The continuing focus on assault weapons stems from the media’s obsessive focus on mass shootings, which disproportionately involve weapons like the AR-15, a civilian version of the military M16 rifle. This, in turn, obscures some grim truths about who is really dying from gunshots.” - - - “Handguns were used in more than 80 percent of gun murders each year” - The New York Times 

“According to the FBI, 1,604 people were killed by ‘knives and cutting instruments’ and 374 were killed by “rifles” in 2016.” - - - “Handguns far outnumber both knives and rifles in American murders. There were 7,105 murders by handgun in America in 2016.” — The Daily Caller

WHY BANNING/RESTRICTIONS IS HARDER THAN WE THINK

Illinois and California. 

“Bans and strict gun control don’t really prevent gun violence. In 2013, there were 5,782 murders by handgun in the U.S. According to FBI data, 20 percent of those — 1,157 of the 5,782 handgun murders — happened in Illinois and California, which have two of the toughest state gun control regimes in the entire country. And even though California and Illinois contain about 16 percent of the nation’s population, those two states are responsible for over 20 percent of the nation’s handgun murders.”  — The Daily Caller

Between 1995 and 2004, a period covering the ban, there were about 19 incidents per year. And from 2005 to 2011, after the ban expired, the average went up to nearly 21.

Fox makes an important point about what probably happened during the ban: Mass shooters can rather "easily" come up with ‘alternate means of mass casualty if that were necessary.’  In other words, if they can't get an AR-15, they get a Glock. And that's the problem, experts say, of hoping that a ban on assault weapons will stop mass shootings. It's not really about the gun.  Sure, some stats show higher kill counts with assault weapons than with handguns, but as Cho proved, that's not always the case. (As my Wonkblog colleague Christopher Ingraham points out, high-capacity magazines — for rifles or handguns — might make a better focus for gun control advocates, but the symbolic images of clips aren't as striking as an AR-15.)  What's certain is this: A mass shooter doesn't need an AR-15 in the same way that a carpenter doesn't an electric nail gun to build a house. Sure, a handgun might slow a killer down, just as using a hammer slows down the carpenter. The house still gets built. The shooting goes on. - Washington Post