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Crime

Here’s the Chart That Supporters of a Federal Assault Weapons Ban Won’t Want to See

Dec. 20, 2012 5:45pm Jason Howerton

While anti-gun advocates argue that banning semi-automatic rifles, like the popular AR-15, will help decrease shooting deaths in the U.S., FBI data suggests that the average American is more likely to be killed by “hands, fists” or “feet” than a rifle. The anti-gun crowd has intensified its calls for a federal assault weapons ban following the tragedy in Newtown, Conn. last week.

“Yes, massacres tend to be done with weapons like this. But not most gun murders in the U.S.: a vast majority of gun murders in the U.S. are committed with a handgun,” The Washington Examiner’s Timothy Carney writes.

FBI Data Shows Only Small Number of Murders in U.S. Committed With Rifles

(Source: Washington Examiner/FBI)

As you can see in the chart pictured above, the vast majority of murders in the U.S. are indeed committed with handguns, not rifles. More people were killed with shotguns (373), knifes/blades (1,704) and “other weapon[s]” (1,772) more often than they were with rifles in 2010, which were reportedly used in 358 murders that year.

Whether it’s a knife, gun or a fist, will a “ban” of any kind sway a deranged individual’s decision to take human lives?

(H/T: Weasel Zippers)

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Comments (378)

johnnycatt
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 6:54am
Ever since Obama was elected, I could see the handwriting on the wall.. the “left” is in charge and freedom is doomed… SOOOOO…. I took up a new hobby – I built a full service machine shop in a spare space in my warehouse… I have studied on making 2 things: Guns and steam engines (becasue they can be run off any material that burns, not just gasoline)… we’ll need both to restart freedom!

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M24
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 6:27am
When The Real Police Tell You To Arm Yourself Because They Can’t Be Everywhere What Does That Say = Evil Comes Real Fast ,Good Takes Awhile.

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welovetheUSA
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 2:29am
Car crashes kill more people than guns……..and this will go up by next year since all new cars on the road are made of paper…….

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LB
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 1:16am
First they will “nudge” with no automatic, then they will come for the rest. Never trust the people who think they are better and smarter than the rest of us.

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GuruMeditation
Posted on December 21, 2012 at 12:07am
They don’t give a rip what we see or hear. Rise.

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- sparkyrules
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 3:58am
  Alots.
  
  Report this comment
taintso
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 11:34pm
How many people have died from aids, that we didn’t quarantine? But promoted with the gay movement?

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taintso
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 11:31pm
I grew up with loaded guns in the house and where I could have gotten them. I was taught how properly take care of and use the guns. I might add that my parents and school taught right from wrong. I raised my children the same way with loaded firearms in the house with no problems what so ever. My children like myself were forbid en to tell our friends a bout or where the guns were. How ever if my children would of had any mental disorder, or irrational behavior I would have unload and locked the guns in a safe location away from the children.

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ISRAELISOURFRIEND
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 11:24pm
Democrats need and will get there education in American History.

Their lame street media, politics, and double standards, as well as taking freedoms, liberties, rights and wealth, will soon come to an end.

Americans are awake and we will not COMPLY!!!!!

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sURFNmADNESS
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 11:21pm
Car kill people too. In fact they killed 32,367 last year. Way more than guns. Yet we are not trying to ban cars. Both are just tools. They cannot kill by themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

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DME
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 11:01pm
There is no such thing as an “assault weapon”. Which manufacturer makes this mythical model?? It is a term that the anti-constitionalist media and politicians throw around to try to scare and intimidate the uninformed.

In order for something to be an assault weapon you have to use it to attack someone. If I have an AK-47 and the only thing I ever do with it is take it out and shoot targets – it is NOT an assault weapon. The word assault doesn’t even pertain to it in this situation. And, it is arguably not even really a weapon but only a potential weapon if only used for target practice. However if I run you down and stab you in the neck with a pencil, then that pencil is an “assault weapon”.See how easy it is to apply basic logic here?

Also they keep referring to the Bushmaster rifle as a HIGH-POWERED, AUTOMATIC rifle with HIGH CAPACITY CLIPS. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. Most of your average hunting rifles shoot more powerful cartridges than a .223. Next it is a Semi-automatic rifle, not an automatic rifle or a “machine gun”. This means that, like your hunting rifles, when you pull the trigger one time… ONE bullet comes out! Now the high capacity clip. It is not a clip it is a MAGAZINE! The biggest difference between an AR-15 or AK-47 and your average hunting rifles is that they look scarier to certain politicians and media people. Internally they function basically the same.

I don’t know if they keep reporting about these features of the rifle out of sheer i

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- sparkyrules
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 11:13pm
  sheer ignorance,DME.
  
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Shreknangst
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 10:54pm
8,000 deaths from handguns and “unknown” guns… rifles are minor, as are shotguns …
But where did they classify assault weapons?
Is it simply a rifle? Or is it an “Unknown”?
Given there use in kitchens and for eating, we cannot eliminate knives.
Same idea behind hands, feet, fists — can’t outlaw them.
But it appears the idea here is that we should allow all weapons and not lower the death rate at all … even when it is in our power to do so.

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LeadNotFollow
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 10:44pm
Booze should be banned, not guns.
Drunk drivers kill nearly ten thousand people per year in America.
A lot of the victims are kids.

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bak2basics
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 10:22pm
So many stories NOT told after Newton of lives saved because of gun ownership. Here is a great one from my hometown. http://herald-review.com/news/local/decatur-police-clear-conservation-officer-in-sunday-shooting-death/article_ce298892-48cf-11e2-99f1-001a4bcf887a.html

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Dave
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 10:20pm
but if you add assault weapons to the list then it would be much higher… 12,996 to be exact. see? this is proof we need to ban all assault weapons.

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Blazer58
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 10:19pm
Doctors 1.2 million in 2010 sponsor by your tax money.

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Jeremiah9v23to24
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 10:14pm
Food for thought….
The people on the left would like to ban all guns?

Yet want to arm people in Syria, Libya so they can over throw the governments there. Not only do we want to arm the people, but we want to give them the same exact weapons we want to take from us?
Does that make any sense?
They don’t see a problem with arming Egypt with 20 new F-16′s.

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- retiredguy1952
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 12:00pm
  If a tree fell on a liberal in the forest, would anyone care?
  
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media-bias-steals-elections
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 10:11pm
If there are 43 million gun owners in America (est) that translates to

8779 murders with guns divided by 43,000,000 = .0002% rounded? Are those actual murders, or deaths resulting from people defending themselves from criminals? .0002 percent is still less then all other death rates combined for other reasons, and there is a mandate for change? These numbers are too small in relation to population to gather any useful information out of, other than it is NOT a rampant problem, but a perception (we need gun control) advanced by magicians in the media even though they refuse to abolish gun free zones? So what use are numerical studies if you do not have the political will power to advance the proposition that abolishing gun free zones does work?

You can’t even park a police car on campus, with no officer on campus, but criminals do not know if there is an officer there or not, they see the police car, and go back to their basement and play video games?

I find the hype behind gun control not practical, do you? Do you want to hope the police arrive before you can protect yourself because of the way somebody reads a statistic, or by the peace of mind that you control and direct your destiny by divine providence, and the teachings established by the community to protect, honor, respect, and preserve life liberty and the pursuit of happiness? We can not afford to trade our personal responsibility for insecure numbers?

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JEB STUART
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 10:01pm
I don’t have any children in my house but the fact is an unloaded gun locked away is usless. I have carried concealed for 40 years and I will never be one of those who say ” If only I had had my gun that wouldn’t have happened. My hand gun is never ever out of my reach even when I take a shower. I don’t go anywhere with a metal detector and to hell with gun free zone what people don’t know won’t hurt them……………………………Molon Lebe

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- sparkyrules
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 11:49pm
  Locked and loaded.Loaded and locked.A key is easier to hide/find than the looking at the dead person/people.Better to be responsible and aware,than regretful and wondering…
  
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badjujuu
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 9:56pm
Mike. I listen to your show almost on daily basis and wanted to bring up the school shooting and gun control. Today as I was sitting with my spouse and her friends and discussing the gun control, let me say that her and her friends are completely anti gun I asked them one question. Do they wish that someone was there to prevent that tragedy? If yes,and all of them said yes, how do you think someone would be able to prevent that from happening? By negotiations? Reasoning? How would anyone would be able to stop that psychopath? They knew where this was going. And none of them said a word.

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varptr
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 9:26pm
Money talks. Make it economically friendly to train people for public defense, lock up weapons, store them disassembled, or with key elements stored separately or off site, provide low cost lockable storage, put them in a public cache, use trigger guards, install metal detectors. etc. People jump at chance to make money while improving security and reason, so do it, give those tax rebates, start that paid weapons training, Make that second amendment stand up and bark, a wall of defense with serious consequences and improved safeguards.

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mastice
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:48pm
In other news… roughly 33,000 people died in car accidents last year.

Save your kids, ban motor vehicles!

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chris72sax
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:23pm
If we stopped paying poor people to breed and stop bringing in millions from the third world, this would be a vastly more peaceful nation. We have to say NO MORE to perpetuating an overpopulation of poor and uneducated people. Then we could focus more on the nut jobs.

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FlagWavingPatriot
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:09pm
The Blaze ought to dive into those handgun numbers a little deeper and publish the findings. For those of you who have already looked at it, you know what I mean. The truth must be heard. The politically correct crowd can pound sand.

But beyond that, it’s important to keep these facts in mind:

More kids die by fire than do by guns.
More kids die in backyard swimming pools than do by guns.
More kids die of household cleaners than do by guns.
More kids die of suffocation than do by guns.
More kids die of falls than do by guns.
More kids die in vehicles than do by guns.
More kids die of natural causes than do by guns.
And FAR more kids die at the hands of evil abortionists than die by guns.

Gun control is not about guns, kids or life. It’s about control.

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- StronzateDiDestra
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 11:13pm
  Point being????
  
  As long as people die from other causes, death by firearm is not an issue??
  
  32,000 + dying from bullet holes in their body, and 200,000 injured by guns per year, and that is the issue at hand.
  I am not denying that people also die from fire, drowning, household cleaners, suffocation, falling, car crashes and natural causes, maybe even abortion, but it has no bearing on the matter of death by bullet holes.
  
  FOCUS: 88 people are shot dead every freaking day. More than 1,300,000 Americans in my “short” lifetime
  
  What can be done to prevent this from carrying on perpetually?
  AND
  Why are people not dying anywhere tenuously as frequent in any analogous nation / Union????
  
  Ahhh, they cannot have access to exactly the same violent entertainment and they are each and every one vaccinated against any and all mental illness.
  
  OR THEY MAY JUST HAVE A GUN LAW WITH A GRAIN OF SENCE.
  
  Report this comment
- endthemindlessspending
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 5:07am
  @STRONZ
  
  They took the guns away in USSR millions died, NAZI Germany millions died and China millions died. That is just a few throughout history. The problem in America today is there is no respect, honor or value to life being instilled in our kids. They access guns but aren’t properly trained to use them. Also, everyone has left God and leaving them feel they can do no wrong, and to hell with anyone else. I want what I want, and I want it now. I worked my AZZ off starting at age 7 on our family farm and I am a much better man because of it. This idea of coddling kids until they reach almost 20 is killing the work ethic of America.
  
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- FlagWavingPatriot
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 9:30am
  StronzateDiDestra,
  
  The point—> Perspective. People overreact when motions get involved. For the tens of millions of guns in this country, and the millions that conceal/open carry, it is a remarkably safe endeavor. Swimming pools, for instance, kill about eight times the number of 0-14 year old children as guns. Why isn’t there outrage over that? Why aren’t people like you on here demanding strict pool laws? The answer is the media. The media evokes emotion that is completely out of perspective. Pretty soon, normal citizens start going along with politicians’ notions that we need more laws. We don’t.
  
  If you dive into those numbers of handgun murders, as I suggested of the Blaze, you will find that it is a particular cohort committing most of these crimes. And most of these victims knew their killer. The vast majority of these murders are not random. I’ll let you figure out who is doing all the killing, the statistics are readily available from the FBI and other governmental agencies.
  
  In short, the people using handguns to murder others DO NOT FOLLOW LAWS. You could pile more and more laws on top of the existing laws and these people will still do what they do. They have no respect for the law or life. We already have too many gun laws to deal with, and the only people that follow them are law-abiding folks like me. I’ve been shooting safely for over 30 years. I’m VERY responsible with firearms. Why take away my rights because of criminals?
  
  Report this comment
- FlagWavingPatriot
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 10:51am
  Emotions, not motions. Though I suppose people often overreact from motions, too.
  
  Report this comment
DIgnified
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:08pm
More stupidity for the uneducated myth believing masses. Do statistics and math completely escape you quasi-human slugs? There are approximately 197553710+/- handguns in the united states and 6000 deaths. Which works out to 0.003% There are approximately 2446300+/- assault rifles in the US with 360 deaths. Which works out to 0.015%. For the mathematically challenged: 0.003% < 0.015%. So yes, proportionally assault rifles kill more people than handgun and you are more likely to do so.
So if you things want to argue with math… you must be in Texas. In which case, enjoy your dumbed down republican induced serfdom and slavery.

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- varptr
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 9:58pm
  Proportionally, of course, you’re nuts. Nobody is arguing that you can’t kill more people with semiautomatic weapons. In rifle training, however, semiautomatic weapons are far safer, you aren’t waving the weapon around while you load each round. Try being the fire control officer at a gun training facility or target range. Providing improved safety, reducing impulse and emotional access to such weapons, reducing underage access, insisting on sanity and non-criminal background checks, providing more widespread military training, insisting on gun lock up, insisting on second party vouchers for purchase, changing clip size access rules, setting up rules for owning military weapons like the former Swiss rules. All these things could be done without revealing a single “secret gun” or family heirloom. To help the public safety nationally provide every CNC machine shop with a program to make the current UN rifle. And insist on public stockpile of materials and parts.
  
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- WildschweinJager
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 6:32am
  The Communist Chinese government, via its state-run media front Xinhua, has called for Americans to be disarmed, arguing that the Sandy Hook school massacre demands “no delay for U.S. gun control.”
  Calls on Obama to exploit the tragedy to push his gun control agenda, adding that his lame duck situation represents “the best position to promote it,” while blaming the National Rifle Association for curtailing previous attempts to regulate firearms in the United States.
  
  The Chinese, Russia, Communist South America and Islamic countries don’t want the USA’s citizens to have guns. Why do you think that is?
  
  Report this comment
GUYFROMMAINE
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:08pm
Yet more people die from drunk drivers. Why isn’t the left screaming to ban alcohol? If we ban alcohol, this wouldn’t happen, right???

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- DIgnified
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:11pm
  Alcohol is recommended to not use while drinking. One is transportation one is a beverage. Then there is a gun, which is neither transportation or a beverage/food product. Its is a tool with one purpose. I own a gun. Mossy500. And your reductio ad absurdum only highlights the lack of support, not wit.
  
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- valiant1776
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 11:09pm
  I own a Stoeger over and under, twelve gauge shotgun. It has only one purpose; killing doves for dinner. I own a Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol. It has only one purpose; protecting human lives and private property. Guns are not objects for murder.
  
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- endthemindlessspending
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 5:36am
  @STUPIFIED
  
  Alcohol is recommended to not use while drinking?
  
  Not only is your point moronic, you found a way to make it even worse. So, they have how laws against drinking and driving. Yet, there are how many people driving after their second, third, and even fourth DUI’s. Even worse, how many of them are behind the wheel illegally driving with a suspended license.
  
  So, they get their law passed on assault rifles and all the criminals are just going to say, “Ok, I guess since they passes that law I’m not going to do it now.” They’re called “criminals” for a reason, they don’t care what law you write, they’re going to find a way around it.
  
  Report this comment
- GUYFROMMAINE
  Posted on December 21, 2012 at 7:23am
  @Dignified
  Carefully read Endthemindlessspending’s comment. That is the point I was trying to make. Look at history, they called it Prohibition. Did it work? No. Neither will making restrictive laws which only law abiding citizens obey. Also, I own several guns, so I do not know what you mean about lack of support.
  
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