The Federal Bureau of Investigation released its Uniform Crime Report for 2018 on Monday, and the numbers indicate that more people were killed by knives than rifles.
The annual report touts an overall drop in violent crime for the second consecutive year, according to the Bureau’s news release on the numbers. However, the numbers specifically on homicides in the United States offer some insight into America’s ongoing gun control debate.
Due to multiple shooting massacres that took place in August, gun control proponents have once again turned their animus toward semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15. Perhaps the most salient example of this is 2020 Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke’s pledge, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”
SBA freezes over 100,000 California borrowers in sweeping $9B pandemic fraud crackdown
Israeli Government-Funded ‘Mobile Museum’ Set to Visit US Churches to Promote Zionism
Hundreds of Bizarre References to ‘Pizza’ in New Epstein Documents Raise Eyebrows
Conservative firebrand vows to purge ‘RINOs’ in battle to replace retiring Vern Buchanan in open Florida seat
When anti-ICE clashes trigger federal intervention: Experts explain the constitutional breaking point
North Carolina man charged with three counts of statutory rape held on ICE detainer
Nancy Guthrie’s Neighbor Details Mysterious Sighting Shortly Before Disappearance
Fox News Campus Radicals Newsletter: Top teachers’ union under fire, anti-ICE agitator network exposed
Actor and Producer Timothy Busfield Charged with Committing Child Sex Crimes on Set
Early missteps, delayed search plane response emerge in Savannah Guthrie’s mother disappearance
Fox News True Crime Newsletter: Nancy Guthrie’s abduction, Ohio dentist’s autopsy, Suitcase Killer’s sentence
Chagos handover in limbo after Trump softens on deal, bill pulled from UK Parliament
Second federal judge blocks IRS from sharing addresses with ICE
NFL Under Fire After Awards Show Is Marred by Multiple ‘Unprofessional and Disrespectful’ Gaffes
More than a dozen anti-ICE agitators hauled away by NYPD near Columbia University
However, as has been the case in previous years, the numbers show that rifles in general — including semi-automatics as well as others — only account for a fraction of a percent of the total homicide rate in the United States.
Here’s what the FBI’s 2018 homicide numbers show us:
- Overall, the number of homicides dropped from 15,195 in 2017 to 14,123 in 2018. The overall number of people murdered with guns dropped as well.
- 10,265 were committed with firearms, out of which handguns accounted for 6,603.
- Rifles were used in 297 homicides, shotguns in 235, and “other guns” in 167.
- 2,963 homicides were listed as “firearms, type not stated.”
What does this show us? According to the available information, rifles accounted for just 2.1 percent of total homicides last year — and 2.9 percent of gun homicides.
SBA freezes over 100,000 California borrowers in sweeping $9B pandemic fraud crackdown
Israeli Government-Funded ‘Mobile Museum’ Set to Visit US Churches to Promote Zionism
Hundreds of Bizarre References to ‘Pizza’ in New Epstein Documents Raise Eyebrows
Conservative firebrand vows to purge ‘RINOs’ in battle to replace retiring Vern Buchanan in open Florida seat
When anti-ICE clashes trigger federal intervention: Experts explain the constitutional breaking point
North Carolina man charged with three counts of statutory rape held on ICE detainer
Nancy Guthrie’s Neighbor Details Mysterious Sighting Shortly Before Disappearance
Fox News Campus Radicals Newsletter: Top teachers’ union under fire, anti-ICE agitator network exposed
Actor and Producer Timothy Busfield Charged with Committing Child Sex Crimes on Set
Early missteps, delayed search plane response emerge in Savannah Guthrie’s mother disappearance
Fox News True Crime Newsletter: Nancy Guthrie’s abduction, Ohio dentist’s autopsy, Suitcase Killer’s sentence
Chagos handover in limbo after Trump softens on deal, bill pulled from UK Parliament
Second federal judge blocks IRS from sharing addresses with ICE
NFL Under Fire After Awards Show Is Marred by Multiple ‘Unprofessional and Disrespectful’ Gaffes
More than a dozen anti-ICE agitators hauled away by NYPD near Columbia University
Once again, deaths from knives and “personal weapons” like hands, fists, and feet were higher than the number of homicides committed with rifles. More than five times as many murders were committed with knives (1,515) as with rifles, and more than twice as many people were killed with “personal weapons” (672). Other years included in the FBI report’s table — which spans 2014-2018 — show similar disparities between the same weapon types.
Again, these numbers are just for rifles as a whole. There’s no further breakdown for what kind of action or cosmetic features the rifles had.
But despite the facts, the question of what to do about the AR-15 and other widely used semi-automatic rifles — sometimes referred to as “assault weapons” — will likely remain as one of the main focus points in America’s ongoing debate about guns and the Second Amendment.
Story cited here.
