June 20, 2013

Politics

If you want to end gun deaths, don’t start with rifles

BY: TIMOTHY P. CARNEY DECEMBER 20, 2012 | 2:28 PM
Leave a comment

Politicians and the media these days are focused on the AR-15. This is a powerful semiautomatic (meaning you don’t have to manually cock or load it after each shot) rifle.

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.

This is important, because plenty of people these days are looking to draw a line between guns needed for legitimate purposes, such as self-defense, and guns used for killing people. Looks like they’re the same.

You are more likely to be killed with someone’s “hands/feet/fists” than a rifle.

See the chart below, taken from FBI data.

View article comments Leave a comment
Author:

Timothy P. Carney

Senior Political Columnist
The Washington Examiner

More from washingtonexaminer.com

Related Articles

From the Weekly Standard

  • June 17, 1953

    Today, speaking at the Brandenburg Gate, President Obama paid appropriate tribute to the brave East Germans who rebelled 60 years ago against Communist dictatorship:

    Read More...
  • Problems of the Second Generation

    The Boston Marathon bombings highlighted, once again, the challenges of assimilating Muslim youth. And while the onus of accountability ought not rest exclusively on Muslim Americans, it...

    Read More...
  • Release Osama Bin Laden’s Files on Taliban

    The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that it was moving forward with its attempt to negotiate with the Taliban, which has opened a long-awaited political office in Doha, Qatar. The...

    Read More...