How to refute the more murders with hammers than rifles fiction that is sweeping right wing websites [View all]

[Mortos]

There is a meme sweeping the right wing blogosphere and mainstream media right now that cherry picks figures from FBI crime stats for 2011. Breitbart's (rest his soul) website has an article up that reinforces morons preconceived NRA beliefs that guns are by far safer than common household tools like hammers. There is only one problem, the article intentionally takes one specific weapon, rifles, and dishonestly compares it to dozens of weapons; the FBI stats for blunt objects do not differentiate between hammers, clubs, tire irons, nunchuks, bricks, crowbars, baseball bats, beer bottles, billy clubs, poles, cinderblocks, irons, and dozens of other weapons that are used to bludgeon people or bash their brains out. It also conveniently leaves out every other type of gun murder.

A true comparison shows guns are responsible for more deaths than all other weapons combined.

Here is the Breitbart article

Here are the actual FBI stats

Here are the facts; In America in 2011, 8583 people were murdered by one type of weapon, guns (an additional 18,000 + committed suicide with firearms). Less than half that amount, 4,081 were killed by every other weapon known to man including knives, blunt objects, poison, fire, pushing out a window, cars, hands, explosions, drowning, narcotics, strangulation, asphyxiation and the mysterious "other" category.

The truth is, the probability of being murdered by a gun in America is double that of being killed by any other weapon or method available to humankind...combined.