FBI statistics released Monday shows that more than five times as many people were killed with knives in 2018 than with rifles.
According to the agency’s annual Uniform Crime Report, knifes and/or other cutting instruments were used in 1,515 homicides last year compared to 297 involving rifles. The gap was even bigger than in 2017, when the FBI found four times as many killings by knife as by rifle.
More than twice as many people, 672, were beaten to death in 2018 than were killed with a rifle, the FBI reported based on nationwide law enforcement data.
The numbers bely renewed calls by gun control advocates to ban — or even confiscate — “assault rifles” like the popular AR-15. Prominent Democrats have pushed for such moves following a series of headline-making mass shootings in August.
“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” Beto O’Rourke declared last month on stage at the 2020 Democratic presidential debate.
The FBI numbers on knives and guns vs. the myths
However, only 2.9 percent of the 10,265 gun homicides last year were committed with any kind of rifle, the FBI reported.
The FBI report also contradicts warnings of a national gun crisis by the likes of Hollywood activist Alyssa Milano. Overall, the agency recorded 15,195 homicides, down from 14, 123 in 2018, part of a 16-year decline in violent and property crimes.
*story by Pluralist