While discussing the need for more gun control in the wake of recent mass shootings, an MSNBC contributor said people died by the “thousands” because people are using “‘automatic rifles” and “high-capacity ammunition.”
Donna Edwards, a former Democratic Maryland congresswoman, criticized President Trump’s idea to have the mass shooters who are arrested be on the fast track for the death penalty.
“It’s ridiculous putting the death penalty on the table,” Edwards said Wednesday. “I mean, people who are committing mass shootings aren’t saying, ‘Well, I might get the death penalty and so I won’t do it.’ No, they’re getting these automatic rifles, they’re using high capacity ammunition, and they’re killing, they’re mowing down hundreds, thousands of people every single year.”
Edwards said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “needs to do his job” and put gun control bills on the floor so they can pass and have Trump sign them into law.
According to the FBI’s murder statistics for 2017, of the 10,982 Americans who were killed by firearms, only 403 were killed by any kind of rifle, while 7,032 people were killed by handguns.
Blunt objects, such as clubs and hammers, killed 467 people, with hands, fists, and feet killing 696 in 2017.
Automatic rifles, which are capable of firing more than one round per trigger pull, are heavily regulated with the passage of the 1986 National Firearms Act. “High capacity ammunition” is a firearm feature that does not exist.
