Don't Tell the Left, But Knives Are Used in Far More Murders Than Rifles in the US
Knives kill far more people than rifles each year in the United States, according to the FBI.
The agency reported that 1,604 people were murdered by “knives and other instruments” and 374 were murdered by rifles in 2016.
Handguns far-and-away were the weapons used most often in incidents of murder.
However, there does not seem to be a correlation between the number of handgun murders and strict gun control laws.
According to FBI data, there were 7,105 murders involving handguns in 2016. Of those, 1,658 took place in the two states of California and Illinois, which have some of the toughest gun control laws in the country, the Federalist noted.
That amounts to 23 percent of the total handgun murders in the country, while those states only make up a combined 16 percent of the nation’s population.
Democrat lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, have called for greater gun control measures to be implemented nationally in response to last week’s Florida high school shooting.
Feinstein tweeted that she has introduced legislation to impose a new assault weapons ban, pointing out that the shooter used an AR-15, which is a semi-automatic rifle that would be covered by the bill.
Dudley Brown, president of the National Association of Gun Rights, in a statement to The Western Journal, said, “The 10-year Feinstein ban (passed in the mid-1990s) on so-called ‘Assault Weapons’ and normal capacity magazines did nothing to reduce mass shootings or crimes, and was roundly dismissed as a failure, even by gun control fanatics.”
The Columbine High School shooting in Colorado — one of the most high profile of these terrible incidents, resulting in the deaths of 13 people and 21 injured — occurred in 1999 while the assault weapons ban was in effect.
The shooters used a combination of shotguns, handguns, and semi-automatic weapons. They also had knives and improvised explosive devices in their possession, but the IED’s were not detonated.
As to the prevalence of privately owned weapons in the U.S., Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro tweeted a chart following the Las Vegas shooting last October showing that the murder rate has been trending down for decades in the U.S., despite gun ownership increasing significantly.
Notably, the rate remained low and then decreased further after the assault weapons ban, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, expired in 2004.
Former Miss Ohio Madison Gesiotto — who was a law student at Ohio State University in Nov. 2016 when a terrorist used his car and a knife to attack students — told The Western Journal that “the loss of a life is extremely tragic for all involved, regardless of the instrumentality used in the murder.”
“Knives and guns do not kill people. People kill people,” The Washington Times columnist added. “Passing unreasonable legislation that encroaches on our 2nd Amendment rights will not solve the urgent problem we have in this country with violence.”
President Donald Trump stated on Tuesday that he has directed the Department of Justice to propose regulations that would ban bump stocks, The Hill reported.
The device, which was employed last October in the Las Vegas shooting, effectively turns semi-automatic rifles, like the AR-15, into fully automatic.
“We can do more to protect our children. We must do more to protect our children,” Trump said during the announcement at the White House.
“That process began in December, and just a few moments ago, I signed a memorandum directing the attorney general to propose regulations to ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns,” the president stated.
Trump also signaled this week he would support legislation aimed at implementing stricter background checks for purchasing firearms and improving security at schools.
The chief executive has given no indications he would support reimposing an assault weapons ban.
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