President Joe Biden and other high-profile Democrats have renewed their calls for wide-ranging gun bans in the wake of recent deadly mass shootings in places like Georgia and Colorado. But while those on the left insist that their plan to outlaw so-called “assault weapons” will save lives, the evidence suggests such a move may not have as big an impact as Dems have claimed.
As Breitbart writer Awr Hawkins noted in a Sunday report, the most recent figures published by the FBI show that in 2018, less than 300 people were killed using a rifle of any kind.
To put that into perspective, some 1,515 people were killed in 2018 using knives, while another 443 were murdered with blunt objects like hammers and clubs, Hawkins reported.
What’s more, according to Hawkins, “accidental death by falling occurred 126 times more often than intentional death by a rifle” in 2018.
The truth about AR-15s
While the data shows they are used to take relatively few lives, AR-style rifles offer advantages to a potential crime victim that other options for self-defense simply don’t.
Indeed, unlike most weapons, the efficacy of a firearm depends on the user’s skill — not on their size or strength, which means women and senior Americans can level the playing field against larger or stronger attackers.
The AR-15 is especially helpful in this regard, as its aluminum receiver and direct gas impingement system make for reduced weight and less recoil. What’s more, the gun’s detachable box magazine can make for higher bullet capacity and quicker reload time, which can be useful when confronting multiple attackers.
Armed victims deter criminals
According to local NBC affiliate KPRC, a Houston man demonstrated that fact in 2017 when he reportedly used an AR-15 to stop three men who were committing a drive-by shooting in his neighborhood. Two years prior, a local Fox affiliate shared security footage that reportedly showed a Milwaukee store owner defending his business from an armed gang using an assault-style rifle.
Of course, weapons don’t necessarily even need to be used for them to be effective. Sometimes, just the presence of a gun can deter an attack.
Removing that deterrence would embolden predators. A survey of convicts funded by the Department of Justice in the mid-1980s found that 81% of respondents agreed: “A smart criminal always tries to find out if his potential victim is armed.”
Meanwhile, another 74% of participants felt that “[o]ne reason burglars avoid houses when people are home is they fear being shot.”
Why don’t Democrats ever bring up numbers like these?
The post Data shows knives, clubs, accidental falls claimed far more lives than firearms in 2018: Report first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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