Most shooting crimes are done with pistols not rifles, despite Washington’s focus on AR and AK guns in its reaction to the weekend’s two mass slayings conducted with assault-style weapons.
A new study of guns and gun control measures finds that rifles are used in just 13.7 percent of crimes. For pistols it is 76%, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“While assault rifles and mass shootings really get Americans’ blood boiling and engender majority support for stricter gun laws, that support always fades after a few months. Why does this matter? Because assault rifles are not the real cause of firearm trouble in America,” said the latest AreaVibes survey shared with Secrets.
“In short, this means pistols and revolvers are the deadliest weapons in circulation and, perhaps, the largest threat to American safety. While rifles might be flashier or scarier, handguns are easy to conceal, steal, and transfer from one place to another,” it added.
President Trump did not call for a ban on “assault-style” weapons, or those that can be fitted with large capacity magazines, in his reaction today to the shootings in El Paso, Tex., and Dayton, Ohio.
But many Democrats have called for a ban, similar to one imposed by former President Bill Clinton.
The analysis also showed that there is not a direct relationship between more gun control laws and less gun crime.
In fact, said a release describing the study, “Washington, D.C. has a higher rate of gun violence than any U.S. state despite having among the highest number of gun laws.”
