What Gun Violence Actually Looks Like In California

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – 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.

There were 15,070 murders 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 available. That includes 1,930 murders in California.

The FBI defines “murders” as nonnegligent manslaughters and homicides. They do not include suicides and accidental shootings.

Nearly 75 percent of the country’s murders 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 murders and 3 percent of all murders in which a gun was used.

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, California ranked 42nd highest in the country in gun death rate with 7.9 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 California, firearms were used in 1,368 of murders and rifles were used in just 37 of them. That’s 70.88 percent of all murders in which a gun was the weapon of choice.

Conversely, handguns, sharp objects and body parts accounted for 930, 280, and 89 of murders that year in California, respectively.

Data from the ATF showed there were 39,034 total guns recovered and traced in California in 2016. The vast majority, 50.45 percent, were pistols. Rifles accounted for just 19.45 percent of them.

The recovered guns were used in 929 killings that year and 832 aggravated assaults. They were by far recovered most often in gun cases, such as unlawful possession of a weapon.

Patch reporters Colin Miner and Dan Hampton contributed to this report; Image via Shutterstock