Fact Checking on Gun Statements

PolitiFact has been tracking various statements about guns from advocates of new regulations on guns and those opposed to new regulations. to see Click Here

But some statements are just wrong:  About homicides–“There’s more with hammers than with shotguns and pistols and AK-47s,” said Georgia state Sen. Bill Jackson.

PolitiFact provided these numbers from  the 2011 FBI totals (the most recent year available) for the types of weapons used in homicides:

Handguns:        6,220

Rifles:            323

Shotguns:        356

Blunt Objects:        496

Words matter.  And once you include pistols, as the state senator from Georgia did, his claim became pants on fire wrong. The number of homicides dramatically increases. Keep in mind that these are homicides. Once gun suicides are included, the number of deaths by guns more than doubles.

They attributed this statement to Mark Twain:   “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – it’s the difference between a lightning bug and the lightning.”

 

This entry was posted in Guns.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *