Five fallacies about guns and violence

[nihil]

http://www.justfactsdaily.com/five-fallacies-about-guns-and-violence

In the wake of the Dark Knight massacre in Aurora, Colorado, major media outlets and public figures have been making statements about guns and violence that do more to misinform than educate. Below are some of the most significant and common of these misleading assertions...

Some good facts to have on hand to retort to the anti's who have their knickers in a bunch.

 

[LittleCalm]

Good facts to know. Only odd one is #3. Trying to get into the distinction between assualt rifle and assault weapon seems way too technical for the average person to comprehend. The other 4 fallacies are common sense to explain.

 

[headednorth]

This is a very long pdf, but full of good info to throw out/back at anti's. You guys may already have seen it. I dont remember how I came across it, could very well have been here on NES , so sorry if its a dupe...


http://gunfacts.info/pdfs/gun-facts/6.1/gun_facts_6_1_screen.pdf

 

[BigDaddyAl]

One of the biggest fallacies I've seen since Aurora on the news and among my Facebook friends, is that "assault weapons" are a huge problem. The latest FBI’s Uniform Crime Report provides information about weapons used for approximately 71,000 murders from 2006-2010. I put the data into a spreadsheet and calculated the following averages for 2006-2010 (the percentages are fairly consistent year to year):

% of murders committed with handguns: 49%
% of murders committed with rifles: 3% (it does not distinguish between different types of rifles)
% of murders committed with shotguns: 3%
% of murders committed with knives or cutting instruments: 13%
% of murders committed with hands, fist, feet, etc: 6%
% of murders committed with blunt instruments: 4%

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/uc.../crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl08.xls

 

[ShadeWPI]

As part of the 1994 - 2004 federal Assault Weapons Ban, the BATF&E was required to conduct a study of its effects. During their study they reported that fewer than 1% of guns used to comitt crimes fell under the Assault Weapons Ban.

The problem? The weapons covered by the Assault Weapons ban are not favored by criminals and many of the "features" that destermined a "semi-automatic assault weapon" serve no criminal value.