Here's The Number Of Firearms Deaths In Arizona

PHOENIX, AZ – Following the Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, many Americans and news organizations have tried to shine a light on the AR-15 assault-style rifle. An analysis by The New York Times found the weapon was used to slaughter at least 173 people in mass shootings since 2007. Included were mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut; Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California.

As America delves into yet another heated gun debate in Congress and on the internet, Patch turned to federal data and an expert to get a clearer picture of what gun violence actually looks like in America. Here’s what we found.

The FBI states that there were 15,070 deaths by firearms (not including suicides and accidental shootings) in the United States in 2016, the most recent year that FBI data and gun trace information from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms were availableThat includes 227 deaths by firearm in Arizona.

Nearly 75 percent of those deaths were committed using a gun, but rifles — meaning any rifle, not just AR-15s — were used in just 374 of them. That’s about 2 percent of all of them and 3 percent of all deaths in which a gun was used (again, not including suicides and accidental shootings).

Overall, more than 38,000 people died from gunshot wounds in the United States in 2016, according to preliminary mortality data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly two-thirds of those were suicides.

According to the CDC, Arizona ranked 16th highest in the country in gun death rate with 15.2 such deaths per 100,000 residents. That’s lower than the leading states, Alaska, Alabama and Louisiana which saw the highest gun death rates at 23.3, 21.5 and 21.3, respectively.

In Arizona, guns were used in 227 of the homicides and non-negligent manslaughters counted by the FBI and rifles were used in just 17 of them. That’s .05 percent of all killings and .07 percent percent of the killings in which a gun was the weapon of choice.

Conversely, handguns, sharp objects and body parts accounted for 156, 40, 6 of killings that year in Arizona, respectively.

Data from the ATF showed there were 8,792 total guns recovered and traced in Arizona in 2016. The vast majority, 60 percent, were handguns. Rifles accounted for just 16 percent them.

The recovered guns were used in 227 killings that year and 530 aggravated assaults. They were by far recovered most often in gun cases, such as unlawful possession of a weapon.

When it comes to AR-15 rifles versus handguns, Dr. Cassandra Kercher Crifasi, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, tells Patch there are two key differences.

First, bullets fired out of an AR-15 rifle travel much faster than those from handguns, therefore the damage is significantly more devastating. Second, the assault-style weapon can be easily equipped with large capacity magazines that allow shooters to continue firing for much longer periods of time without needing to reload.

“Particularly when they’re used in mass casualty shootings, you see people are able to get off a lot of those rounds and do an extreme amount of damage compared to other types of firearms,” Crifasi says.

That being said, a handgun is generally easier to hide, she concedes.

Nationwide, the vast majority of killers who used a gun — 64 percent — wielded a handgun. And far more killers used knives or their own hands, fists and feet than any rifle, including — and in particular — the AR-15 rifle.

Knives and other sharp objects were used in 1604 homicides and non-negligent manslaughters that year, FBI data indicated. That’s more than four times higher than rifles. Hands, fists, feet and other body parts accounted for 656 of those killings — nearly double that of rifles.

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

Photo via ShutterStock.