It seems that all we hear about these days when it comes to talks about gun control is 'assault weapons.' Talks of banning them, images of scary-looking AR-15 rifles, and descriptions of how fast they can fire and how many rounds their magazines can hold take up what seems to be the vast majority of the discussion of gun control.
So naturally, you'd think that assault rifles are a big problem, and the source of a significant number of homicides in America.
Unfortunately, that's completely wrong. We're being distracted from the real problem, trying to fix a pothole when the bridge has collapsed.
We'll take a look at what the statistics say after the break.
Take a look at the FBI's Violent Crime database. You'll find some very interesting statistics there, particularly under the "homicide" section. Something that cannot be denied is how often firearms are used in homicides: a national average of just over 67% are committed with a firearm of some sort, with only small regional variations. But the table we're interested in here is table 8, which lists homicides by weapon type.
In 2009, handguns were responsible for over 6,400 homicides in the United States, some eighteen times those committed by rifle. Handguns are responsible for at least 70% of all homicides involving a firearm, compared to just under 4% for rifles of all types. (note: approximately 20% are listed as "type not stated", but statistically it is relatively safe to assume that the distribution remains fairly consistent--meaning that rifles likely still contribute no more than about 4.5% to the firearms homicide statistic)
In the perspective of total homicides this means that handguns are responsible for at least 47% (and likely more, due to the "type not stated" data) of all homicides. Rifles of all types are responsible for at least 2.5%. Knives or other cutting instruments are responsible for nearly 13.5%. As gruesome as this is to consider, the statistics are saying that you're twice as likely to be beaten to death as you are to be murdered with any sort of rifle.
Now, keep in mind that when we say rifles we're referring to a rather diverse group of guns which includes assault rifles such as the much-maligned AR-15 as well as bolt-action hunting rifles as are found all over the US.
But even that isn't the entire picture. It turns out that only about 1/3 of the guns in the US are handguns. According to JustFacts,
* Based on production data from firearm manufacturers, there are roughly 300 million firearms owned by civilians in the United States as of 2010. Of these, about 100 million are handguns.
Which means that one third of the guns are causing over over two thirds of the homicides. That's a crazy statistic. That's double what we would expect even if we made the (clearly flawed) assumption that all guns are used proportionally in homicides, which as we see isn't at all reflected in reality, and the polar opposite from what we'd expect based on the amount of time being spent in the media and blogs talking about assault rifles.
By now I hope you understand my original question: why are we so focused on 'assault weapons' when they are such a small part of the overall problem? Why aren't we addressing the problem of handguns? Why are we letting fear of something that looks scary get in the way of confronting reality?
Hand guns are relatively easy to conceal, fit easily in a glove compartment, under a coat, in a purse, or in a dresser or nightstand. We already know that firearms escalate violent situations, but how often are people just carrying around rifles in case of trouble? How often are rifles somewhere convenient like a handgun is?
Handguns are where this conversation needs to be. Anything less is a distraction. Some people are still not going to even want to talk about it, but rifles are by-and-large the domain of hunters and target shooters. Not to say that handguns aren't also used extensively for target shooting as well, but most are advertised for, sold for, and carried for personal defense.
The problem of course is convincing the general public of this. As a friend pointed out to me today during a conversation of this exact subject,
"...good luck convincing the public of that. Handguns are "good guy" guns on movies and TV. Rifles are carried by the faceless mooks mowed down by handgun-wielding protagonists."
So, are we ready to tackle the real, difficult problem of handgun violence? Or are we going to keep jousting at the windmills labeled "assault weapons" because they look scarier?
(Would you like to get a more in-depth look at what the Assault Weapons Ban actually banned, and what effects it had? Kontradictions has an excellent in-depth article discussing this very thing, as well as touching on why a high-capacity magazine ban would be equally useless).