In reviewing my post on the USAToday graphic database I came across an interesting statistic from PolitiFact: more people are killed by hammers and clubs than by rifles of all types. In 2011 there were 1,694 people killed with knives and cutting tools, 726 with hands or feet, 496 with blunt instruments such as clubs or hammers and 323 with any type of rifle. PolitiFact also notes that in 1,587 homicides the type of gun was not reported. But if we assume that the unknown gun types have the same proportion as the known gun types, there were 396 homicides committed with rifles in 2011. In that case the statement is still true. The number killed with semi-automatic rifles would be some number less than that.
Advertisements
