There were 13,927 homicides in the US in 2019, the most recent year for which figures are available. Of these, 346 were committed with rifles. That is, rifles of any kind, from antiques to AR15s.

Imagine that all rifles vanished by magic. Then imagine that killers who would have used rifles never used another weapon, but devoted their lives to Bible study. If this happened, the homicide rate would fall by 2.6%, an insignificant drop no one would notice. Banning “assault rifles,” no matted how defined, is a useless gesture designed to disarm Americans.

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