I mean, I thought we were arguing gun crime weren’t we? Why the sudden shift to police brutality?
Actual data.
Total homicide by firearm numbers:
2012 - 8897
2013 - 8454
2014 - 8312
2015 - 9778
2016 - 11004
Definitely an increase but let’s look a little closer.
Handguns:
2012 - 6404
2016 - 7104
Rifles:
2012 - 298
2016 - 374
Shotguns:
2012 - 310
2016 - 262
Other firearms:
2012 - 116
2016 - 186
Firearm type not stated:
2012 - 1769
2016 - 3077
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-4.xlsThere has been an increase in firearm related murders, that won’t be argued. But the same people who say to ban assault rifles ignore that less than 380 people are killed with ALL types of rifles (assault or not) on a year to year basis compared to over 7000 handguns at last check. If public safety and crime were an issue why not the focus on handguns?
Even many in this thread like Nintex maintain it’s ok to defend yourself with a sidearm despite the fact that’s the number one gun done for murder and mostly by gangsters. These stats don’t even dissect if those guns are legally owned.
So are you trying to argue disengenously? I respect someone who is honest and says,”I think all guns should be banned” than someone who is intellectually dishonest and tries to paint rifles as the deadliest guns in America when that simply ain’t true. It makes many anti-gun opinions forfeit. Combine with the actual low odds of school shootings likelihood of happening, and it’s even more open shut.
Extra stat data:
Knives:
2012 - 1604
2016 - 1604
Blunt objects (hammers, clubs):
2012 - 522
2016 - 472
Hands/fists/feet:
2012 - 707
2016 - 656
This isn’t to limit these peoples deaths to mere numbers as each death here is a tragedy in itself, but why should millions of people be punished and have rifles banned when rifles are the gun that is used in the least amount of murders?
This is why Democrats lose on this issue. This info is public information. You can find it simply by google. Yet the media and democrats continue to push this issue that anyone can find and read themselves.
Democrats and media pushes people away by concentrating on it. As someone else said:
It's been a pet theory of mine for a while that the "fake news" epidemic can trace some of its start to media coverage of guns. If you're even remotely knowledgeable about firearms, you can't help but notice that, in general, media coverage on the topic is pretty poor and gets a lot wrong. And once you've noticed that they're getting something you know about wrong, you start to wonder what they're getting wrong about the topics you don't know well enough to spot errors in for yourself...
Be honest with yourself about guns. Rifles are a blip in gun crime. I thought the goal was to stop gun crime? If you ban assault rifles a gunman will just use a different weapon. Shit, angunman is already likely to use a different weapon in general.
So why the focus on rifles? Someone please tell me.
“They were made to kill.”
Find me any weapon that wasn’t designed to kill.
Look at the numbers for yourself and try to argue why rifles are a legitimate problem. Out of 300 million people, with millions upon millions of rifles sold, why does focusing on a type of gun that kills less than 400 people year given precedence over climate change and healthcare?
And now you know why democrats must drop this issue and focus on real ones. If they want to curb gun crime in a real way they’d focus on ending the drug war. Gun control should be item number 20 on the DNC agenda, not number 2. Democrats are sacrificing our futures over bullshit.