With the U.S. Supreme Court set to hear oral arguments in what promises to be a landmark case next month, lots of facts and figures are being bandied about by both sides of the “assault rifle” debate.
Are these obviously popular weapons truly in “common use?” And are AR-15s, AK-47s, and similar firearms responsible for the lion’s share of “gun violence?”
A resounding yes for common use and no for carnage.
Group’s data showed results opposite of what anti-gunners expect
With the consolidated challenges to bans on modern sporting rifles looming, the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) sifted through mountains of data to uncover the truth about semi-automatic rifles. What the group found should make every rabid anti-gunner reconsider their positions.
Ownership of these ubiquitous weapons now numbers in the tens of millions, easily making them the most popular class of long gun in the U.S. While these firearms are in many more hands, they are responsible for a minuscule number of murders.
These rifles were used in 4.8% of murders in 1994, when the federal “assault weapon” ban was enacted. But even with their explosion in popularity since that prohibition was allowed to expire, that figure shrank to 2.67 percent just last year.
Are such rifles exceedingly dangerous or unusual?
Knives cause far more criminal deaths than rifles and shotguns
No, and no. Breitbart News noted that the federal government’s own numbers showed that more than three and a half times as many Americans were stabbed to death in 2020 as were fatally shot by every rifle in the U.S. combined.
The following year, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report revealed that the number of U.S. residents stabbed to death more than doubled the total of murders carried out with long guns.
Sweeping semi-automatic rifle bans are a solution in search of a problem. Second Amendment opponents are offended by their styling and want to scapegoat an entire class of weapons for the criminal acts of a few.
A more pragmatic policy would not rely on disarming law-abiding Americans. Instead, it would ensure upstanding people can defend themselves and work to get repeat offenders off the streets and behind bars.
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