FBI: 4x more deaths by knives than assault rifles. FBI Statistics: At Least 4 Times More People Were Killed With Knives Than “Assault Rifles” Last Year.
In recent years liberals have been wise enough to shift their gun control focus specifically to so-called “assault weapons,” rather than all guns.
It’s no mystery why they’ve shifted that focus; banning all guns (and handguns in particular) is wildly unpopular, so they’ve instead decided to focus on the type of firearms that tend to look the “scariest” to some people. In particular, “assault rifles” like the AR-15 have been a scapegoat of the left, due to how frequently they’re the weapon of choice in highly publicized mass public shootings (though the majority of mass shootings are committed with handguns when you count gang shootings as mass shootings).
The FBI’s 2019 crime statistics are now out, and just like all their past reports, they debunk the notion that “assault weapons” pose a unique threat relative to other types of firearms – or even other commonly used murder weapons.
According to American Military News:
Four times as many people were killed with a knife than with any kind of rifle in 2019, the FBI revealed in its Uniform Crime Report released late last month.
According to the UCR, 1,476 victims were murdered with “knives or cutting instruments,” whereas 364 people were killed with rifles, including the vague category of “assault rifles.”
There isn’t a breakdown of what percent of victims were killed by regular rifles vs. “assault rifles,” so we only know that at least four times as many were killed by knives that assault rifles, but it is likely much higher. Even if the split is 50/50 it would imply that eight times as many people are killed every year by knives than assault rifles. Of course, this is a meaningless distinction because the only real differences between “assault” rifles and ordinary rifles are cosmetic, and isn’t every weapon an “assault weapon” if you think about it?
More victims were also murdered by blunt objects like clubs and hammers, which resulted in 397 homicides in 2019.
The estimated number of violent crimes also decreased for the third consecutive year, according to a statement from the FBI. The estimated rate of violent crime was 366.7 per 100,000 people. There were roughly 1.2 million total violent crimes committed in 2019.
Gun sales have been surging in 2020, fueled by a pandemic, nationwide riots that Democrat leaders showed little interest in stopping, and the prospect of a Biden/Harris administration that would implement new gun control measures.
Americans have purchased more guns in the first eight months in 2020 than the entirety of 2019, and are on pace to make this year the biggest year for gun sales ever.
Hopefully no liberal mistakes these statistics for an argument favoring knife and fist control.
Author: Matt Palumbo
