High school shooting in Parkland FL

[Tiberius]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk...eople-die/

According to this site = 

FBI Crime Statistics: More People Killed by Hammers, Clubs Than Guns
POSTED BY: BENJAMIN KNIGHT JUNE 16, 2016
Regressive left calls for gun control but not hammer control.
https://wethevigilant.com/2016/06/16/fbi...than-guns/

CapnAwesome made a great point about both sides using misleading stats, and this is a big one.

Firstly, the stat is true...when talking about rifles, not "guns" in general. Handguns accounted for 6,220 murders according to the same FBI stats, shotguns 356, "other guns" 97, and finally "Firearms, type not stated" accounted for 1,587 (that stat presumably includes some rifles).

Secondly, the article states that "hammers and clubs" accounted for 496. The actual wording used by the FBI was "Blunt objects (clubs, hammers, etc.)". The FBI does not break down the murders by blunt objects any further than that, it just lumps them together. So there's no actual way of telling how many of the 496 murders were actually committed by a hammer. All we know is it's a number between 0 and 496, whereas for "guns" the total is 8,583.

Finally, the whole "hammer control" argument misconstrues what people want to restrict regarding gun crime. People will always find ways to murder each other, and nobody is arguing that any item capable of being used for murder should be banned or restricted. Rather, the argument is that guns are capable of killing multiple people in quick succession, and from a distance, something that cannot be said about things like hammers, knifes, etc. Nobody can seriously argue that had Nikolas Cruz been armed with a hammer or a knife instead of a gun, he would have killed / injured the same number of people that he did.

Furthermore, hammers have a designed purpose that does not include killing. So do knifes, so do cars. Guns are designed primarily as a weapon. Yes, you can use them for recreational activities, but their main purpose is to kill.


Full Disclosure: I do not own a gun but I have had gun training and fire handguns at a local shooting range.