The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released its 2018 Uniform Crime Report on 9-30-19, and the results show that more people were killed by knives than rifles.

This annual report shows an overall decline in violent crime for the second consecutive year, according to the FBI’s numbers. Regarding homicides in the United States, these numbers offer some insight into ongoing gun control debate in America.

In August of this year, due to multiple shootings that took place, gun control advocates have once again focused their attack on semi-automatic rifles such. To be more specific, their focus is aimed at what these folks like to call “assault rifles” which include the ever popular AR-15. The most blatant example of this attitude is 2020 Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke and his now infamous words, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”

Non the less, as history repeats itself, the numbers show that rifles in general (including semi-automatic rifles) only account for a small fraction of a percent of the total homicides in the United States.

According to the FBI’s 2018 homicide report the number of overall homicides have dropped from 15,195 in 2017 to 14,123 in 2018. Murders with guns overall have dropped as well. There were 10,265 firearms homicides committed in 2018, with 6,603 of which were committed with handguns.

The 2018 Numbers:

• 10,265 total firearms homicides
• 6,603 committed with handguns
• 1,515 committed with knives
• 672 committed with personal weapons (hands, fists, and feet)
• 297 committed with rifles
• 235 committed with shotguns
• 167 committed with “other guns”
• 2,963 listed as “firearms, type not stated.”

So, according to the FBI report, rifles accounted for just 2.1 percent of all homicides and 2.9 percent of all gun homicides in 2018.

homicides committed with knives and “personal weapons” were much higher than the number of homicides committed with rifles. In fact, more than five times the amount of homicides were committed with knives than with rifles, and more than twice the amount of people were killed with “personal weapons”.

Previous years were also included in the FBI report’s table.  These years spans from 2014 to 2018 and illustrate similar differences between the same weapon types.

Keep in mind that these figures are for rifles in general and are not broken down into sub categories such as action type, caliber, or even the dreaded “assault rifle”.

With all of this in mind, remember this famous quote… “When a nation mistrusts its citizens with guns it is it sending a clear message. It no longer trusts its citizens because such a government has evil plans.”