to get strangled, kicked, or beaten to death than you are to get killed by a "Assault" Rifle according to the FBI UCR. Given that there were only 323 positively identified rifle homicides in America last year, out of the near 14,000 that have occurred according the FBI, it seems that if we want to decrease the homicide rate, and we should, going after assault rifles seems to be a pretty stupid way to do it.
And according to Slate, there are 2.4 million legally acquired assault rifles in the hands of Americans. Meaning that any given legally assault rifle has a 1.3%* chance of ever being used to commit a homicide. Now factor in that there are some, in my opinion most, gun homicides done with guns that were illegally acquired, that ratio would have to go down. The facts are clear. Legal gun ownership posses no risk to the American public.
*Addendum Slate estimates a total of 3.75 million Assault Riffles in America. That would drop the chance of being murdered by one even lower using the UCR. About .08%, that is less than 1%. Once again, America certainly does have a murder problem, but trying to make the case that banning legal owner ship of "Assault" Rifles wouldn't make an impact, especially when we consider how many of those 323 were committed with legally versus illegally owned rifles.
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About Me
- Cogitans Iuvenis
- Seattle resident whose real name is Kevin Daniels. This blog covers the following topics, libertarian philosophy, realpolitik, western culture, history and the pursuit of truth from the perspective of a libertarian traditionalist.
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