Knives Kill More People Each Year Than Rifles: Time For Knife Control?

According to crime statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), knives are consistently used to kill people far more often than rifles are used. And the numbers aren’t even close: five times as many murders were committed with knives than were committed with rifles last year. The FBI statistics show that knives have been used as a murder weapon far more often than rifles — even those evil “assault weapons” we hear so much about — for quite a while. In 2013, knives or other cutting instruments were used to kill 1,490 victims. In contrast, rifles were the cause of death of 285 murder victims. Shotguns were used in 308 murders. In 2009, the ratio was very similar: knives were used in five times as many murders as rifles. The 2013 numbers are even more interesting when you compare them to data from 2003, the last year in which the 1994 federal “assault weapon” ban was in effect. In 2003, 390 people were murdered with a rifle. That’s right. The number of rifle murders is 27 percent lower today — ten years after the expiration of the “assault weapon” ban — than it was in 2003, the last year “assault weapons” were banned by the federal government...more