Thanks to Eugen Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy for this correction of the the Breitbart post I linked in the my last post.
The FBI Statistics:
| Murder Victims | |||||
| by Weapon, 2005-2009 | |||||
| Weapons | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
| Total | 14,965 | 15,087 | 14,916 | 14,224 | 13,636 |
| Total firearms: | 10,158 | 10,225 | 10,129 | 9,528 | 9,146 |
| Handguns | 7,565 | 7,836 | 7,398 | 6,800 | 6,452 |
| Rifles | 445 | 438 | 453 | 380 | 348 |
| Shotguns | 522 | 490 | 457 | 442 | 418 |
| Other guns | 138 | 107 | 116 | 81 | 94 |
| Firearms, type not stated | 1,488 | 1,354 | 1,705 | 1,825 | 1,834 |
| Knives or cutting instruments | 1,920 | 1,830 | 1,817 | 1,888 | 1,825 |
| Blunt objects (clubs, hammers, etc.) | 608 | 618 | 647 | 603 | 611 |
| Personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.)1 | 905 | 841 | 869 | 875 | 801 |
| Poison | 9 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 6 |
| Explosives | 2 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 2 |
| Fire | 125 | 117 | 131 | 85 | 99 |
| Narcotics | 46 | 48 | 52 | 34 | 45 |
| Drowning | 20 | 12 | 12 | 16 | 8 |
| Strangulation | 118 | 137 | 134 | 89 | 121 |
| Asphyxiation | 96 | 106 | 109 | 87 | 77 |
| Other weapons or weapons not stated | 958 | 1,140 | 1,005 | 999 | 895 |
| 1 Pushed is included in personal weapons. | |||||
So the information was misleading but I was willing to be mislead. But it also says that ‘assault rifles’ per.se. are not a large scale threat, they’re just a red herring.
I have to say that I am not sure what this data tells me. If I were knee jerk anti gun and an idealist I am sure that I would immediately say that if I confiscated every gun then I would save most of the ten thousand lives taken per year by firearms. But being rather less impressed by the world I see around me I would suggest that the number would fall but not by anywhere near as much as you might think. 1) Most murders are by criminals and unless their were some magic that eliminated every gun in an instant (and there’s an interesting SciFi premise) you’re not going to get their weapons and they’d even start building their own since the tech’s pretty simple. 2) the number of other types of murder would go up since the term, ‘don’t bring a knife to a gunfight’ has a lot of harsh practicality behind it.
Then you have the problem that this is not Sweden, Denmark, France, or even England or Germany, this is America, a restless, dynamic, even volatile place with folks who own a car, a TV, in fact all the mod cons, and still figure they are owed more. So A)The number of thefts, robberies, home invasions, kidnappings, extortion by violence would break all records because again the innocent would be weaponless [n particular women and old folks would be very vulnerable.] and {Don’t give me fluff about the police,while most are hard-working and honest they are far in time and distance from you in times of need and are there by definition to catch bad guys AFTER the fact. And given modern expectations regarding training, equipping, paying and benefits there will be far too few if the crime rate explodes.} B) this then will increase the general level of lawlessness because no one will believe in the law as administered by the government. Many otherwise law-abiding will resort to guns and some will then be arrested for trying to protect themselves and the downward slope of trust in society will get steeper.
