Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: Gun-control mistakes [View all]krispos42
(49,445 posts)Don't forget, the FEDERAL AWB expired in 2004. Many states, including big ones like California, New York, and New Jersey, kept their own bans on the books. Those three states alone are 69M people, or about 20% of the country. Add in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maryland, that's almost 17M more. I assume Illinois has one, and they're nearly 13M people. So those 7 states have in total 100M people, or about a third of the country, still living with an AWB. And more states may have them, I just don't know off the top of my head. Maybe Delaware and/or Rhode Island.
We didn't figure out shit. Gun makers removed "assault" features and kept on selling guns. Connecticut has had an AWB in place continuously since 1992 or so; those kids at Sandy Hook were slaughtered with a rifle that was not an "assault weapon". Does that make you feel any better, knowing that when Major Shitstain was mowing down gradeschoolers, that his rifle didn't have an adjustable stock? Or a flash supressor? Or a bayonet mounting lug? Or a second pistol grip?
And if you're going to link to an article, read the whole thing, please.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban#Effects
Rifles, of which a portion are "assault weapons", account for 4.64% of all gun-related homicides between 1985 and 2017.
Peak "rifle death" occurred in 1989, when there were 798 rifle-related homicides. There were 395 in 2017, and we have nearly a third more people now than in 1989.
I have data, but it's getting late. I've been working on a spreadsheet and making graphs from it. If I have some time tomorrow I'll post them. The numbers above are from my work tonight.