Rifles’ Responsibility in Murders Exaggerated

Rifles are targeted when discussing gun control because they are often viewed as the driving force behind murders. That is untrue. Most debates concerning gun control focus on banning assault weapons, which rifles are considered. The problem is that even if assault weapons are banned, that will not eradicate most murders.

According to FBI data, rifles are only used in 2 percent of all murders. Two percent is an extremely low number when looking at all types of weapons used in murders. In 2015, firearms in general were used in 72 percent of all murders. It’s handguns that were most often used – 67 percent involved handguns out of all murders. On a daily basis, most people carry handguns rather than rifles, because of the obvious size difference. There were 114 million handguns versus 110 million rifles in the hands of Americans in 2009.

Shifting the Details of the Debates
It’s obvious that handguns are used much more often in murders, so why are politicians focused on rifles? It’s probably because handguns are primarily intended for self-defense, and everyone knows this. In an example borrowed from the Washington Examiner, a feeble grandmother may not be able to carry a rifle to protect herself, but she can use a handgun easily.

While rifles appear to be much more frightening, particularly to people who aren’t knowledgeable about guns, they still aren’t used as a murder weapon enough to be considered a serious risk, in my opinion. If bills are passed banning rifles, most of the people who would have used rifles to kill would simply use a handgun instead, don’t you think? Will banning rifles lower the rate of murders in the United States? It’s unlikely.

What Can Be Done?
Murderers will usually find a means to kill someone whether it be with a gun, knife, or with their bare hands. The only way to lower the rate of murders is to find out why people want to kill and then attack the problems there. When you get to the root of the problem of why murders occur, gun control won’t have to be a consideration. It seems as though if more thought went into mental health, there may be fewer murders. As all of us know, it’s not the guns that kill people, it’s the people behind the guns. If we can stop the people behind the guns from killing, we won’t have to question which guns are responsible for murders and banning them.