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More Murdered with Hands and Feet than "Assault Rifles"
Gun Watch ^ | 30 December, 2012 | Dean Weingarten

Posted on 12/30/2012 3:40:33 PM PST by marktwain

In the media and Administration’s push to use the recent school shooting to advance their political agenda, they are careful to couch their words in vague emotionalism and obscure terms that avoid any facts or rational discussion. The rifles that they are most keen on banning are exactly those firearms that are least used in murders, but the most protected by the Constitution.

Modern sport utility rifles, which are included in the vague term “assault weapons", are used so seldom for murder that many states do not see a single case in a year.

In 2010, there were 12,996 murders. Firearms were used in 8,775. Of those, rifles were used in 358, and modern sport utility rifles, often called “assault rifles” are a fraction of those. These rifles are seldom used in crime because standard handguns, at close range, offer comparable firepower and are more easily concealed.

Hands and feet were used to kill 742. Clubs were used to kill 540. Knives were used to kill 1,704.

While the type of firearm was not listed for 2,035 homicides, it is unlikely that there were very many sport utility rifles in that group. Sport utility rifles are easily identified, and so rarely used in murder as to make headlines when they are.

This does not make them rare. They are the most popular type of rifle sold in the last 5 years. Most rifles sold in the United States are semi-automatic. The difficulty of defining "assault weapon" (which primarily depends on cosmetic features) makes it hard to say how many are owned in the United States, but it is likely somewhere between 10 and 30 million.

Why does the Media and the Administration want to take away those firearms most appropriate for use in militias, and thus most protected by the Constitution? The answer lies in part with a strategy of deception first put forward by Josh Sugarman of the Violence Policy Center in 1988 “The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the publics confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.”

Many who wish to disarm the citizens also believe that the government should have a monopoly on deadly force. This is directly in contradiction with the founding documents and philosophy of the United States, which was primarily concerned with creating a government that was limited, in part, by an armed citizenry. If you believe that citizens should never oppose a government by force, then you want those citizens disarmed.

When the “Assault weapon ban” of 1994 went into effect, it had no discernible effect on the murder rate. When it sunset in 2004, there was no discernible effect on the murder rate. This was because these firearms are rarely used in crimes. They are however, very popular with police and armed citizens, because they make it much easier for an armed citizen to defend against multiple attackers. One of the primary purposes of guns is to deter attack. Sport Utility rifles are a powerful deterent to those who wish to harm the innocent.

Dean Weingarten


TOPICS: Education; History; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: assaultrifle; assaultweapon; banglist; guncontrol; handsandfeet; secondamendment
When someone tells you that "assault rifles allow people to kill far more than if they had a knife or club, tell them that people with knives or clubs kill far more than are killed with "assault rifles" in the United States.
1 posted on 12/30/2012 3:40:42 PM PST by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Link to latest FBI statistics, 2010:

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl11.xls


2 posted on 12/30/2012 3:46:08 PM PST by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Right!!! Well then... henceforth, all things sharp will be banned, and all things pointy shall also be banned, and anything that is sharp AND pointy is right out!!!

Also, things that are blunt are banned, and things that are heavy are banned, and things that are blunt AND heavy are RIGHT OUT AS WELL!!!

Well, lets see... that about cover it then???

3 posted on 12/30/2012 3:54:33 PM PST by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: marktwain
Thanks for the good article.

The American People seem to have the issue well in hand, and oppose a new weapon ban by 51% to 46%. The Dems are fools to try and buck that tide. However, 0 has shown nothing if not that he's a fool.

I wonder if more violence will result from an attempted ban than from leaving the status quo alone.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/159569/americans-stricter-gun-laws-oppose-bans.aspx

4 posted on 12/30/2012 4:00:40 PM PST by PreciousLiberty
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To: Chode

Not quite. In this direction, we also need to ban all things strong and stringy, all strong drink and toxic chemicals, all plastic bags and duct tape, and and most of all “hands and feet”!


5 posted on 12/30/2012 4:02:09 PM PST by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Ban all knives! Now!


6 posted on 12/30/2012 4:04:12 PM PST by fabian (" And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forests will echo in laughter")
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To: marktwain
absoluto necesario...
7 posted on 12/30/2012 4:39:21 PM PST by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: marktwain

good link to good data


8 posted on 12/30/2012 5:14:33 PM PST by harpu ( "...it's better to be hated for who you are than loved for someone you're not!")
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To: fabian
Ban all knives! Now!

The UK is still *seriously* considering banning kitchen carving knives.

So, if anyone here believes that there is a practical limit to the fascist lunacy we are being subjected to, you better rethink it.

9 posted on 12/30/2012 5:20:21 PM PST by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s.....you weren't really there)
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To: marktwain

Thanks for the article.


10 posted on 12/30/2012 7:02:24 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (My greatest fear is that when I'm gone my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them)
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To: marktwain; All

..and the Chickens, too.

11 posted on 12/30/2012 7:45:14 PM PST by skinkinthegrass (who'll take tomorrow,spend it all today;who can take your income,tax it all away..0'Bozo man can :-)
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To: skinkinthegrass

There will NEVER be rest until all guns are banned and removed from the hands of the people. WHEN that happens, we are all doomed but there will be one hell of a fight to make it happen.

Lock and load, order more ammo, stock up for what is to come.


12 posted on 12/31/2012 5:13:03 AM PST by DaveA37
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

More people die in auto crashes than in plane crashes, but planes (and boxcutters) are used by “activists” to mass-murder Americans.

Thanks marktwain.


13 posted on 12/31/2012 8:40:13 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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