Assault rifles are in the news again, as are high-capacity magazines. There’s considerable interest in banning the sale of one or both of these items, but I’m wondering what the effect would be.
Questions:
How many deaths per year in the US are due to assault rifles?
How many deaths per year involved the use of high-capacity magazines (whether in assault rifles or any other kind of weapon)?
Google is failing me; I get lots of news articles using those words, but the particular stats I seek aren’t popping up.
Since 1976, handguns account for over 1/2 of all homicides each year, while all other firearms account for approximately the same numnber of homicides as knives and “other methods” (see the chart in the section “Violent Crimes Related to Guns”). The “other guns” category would include shotguns and single shot rifles as well as assault rifles. According to another study I saw recently (which, of course, I can’t find now) shotguns, regular barrel and sawed off, account for the majority of the “other gun” homicides. Assault rifles accounted for less that 2% of all homicdes. I know Wiki is not always the best source, but it does match the other study. I’ll try to locate that cite.
This question is unanswerable without defining assault rifle. Which isn’t, despite what every idiot pundit and fat-mouthed politician these days wants to say, defined anywhere or by anyone except in random pieces of legislation.
Which is to say, it means anything you want it to mean.