Guns and solutions

Sometimes logic is replaced by emotion especially when politics gets in the way. This has happened in the climate change issue and is now front and center in the gun issue. Here is some data. In 2017 there were 39,733 deaths by fire arms and 23,854 were suicides. There were 14,542 homicides mostly using hand guns and knives were used four times as often as rifles. According to the FBI, 1,604 people were killed by “knives and cutting instruments” and 374 were killed by “rifles” in 2016. This data does not distinguish between assault rifles and other types. The difference is an assault rifle is a rifle with a pistol grip. Some are suggesting that the solution is to get rid of rifles when data shows that hand guns are the biggest problem. Some of the more sensible solutions are to limit the magazine size on all guns and to have universal background checks with sales between family members exempted.