Should We Blame The AR-15? Wisconsin Gun Data Shows Otherwise

MILWAUKEE, WI — 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 ou state and across America. Here’s what we found.

Gun-Related Deaths In Wisconsin

According to the CDC, Wisconsin ranked 35th in the U.S. with 11.4 gun-related 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 Wisconsin, guns were used in 166 murders and rifles were used in just 6 of them. Conversely, handguns, sharp objects and body parts accounted for 119, 27 and 12 murders that year in Wisconsin, respectively.

Small Arms Most Common Weapon

Officials recovered 2,315 firearms in the city of Milwaukee in 2016 - by far the greatest number of all cities in the state. The next highest city was Wauwatosa with 427 firearm recoveries. 'Tosa was followed by Madison with 231, Racine with 127 and Beloit with 118.

Of all firearms recovered in Wisconsin, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reported that pistols and revolvers were by far the most recovered weapons, with 2,970 pistols and 616 revolvers seized by law enforcement. 616 rifels and 455 shotguns were also recovered.

The ATF is reporting that the 9mm was most popular, resulting in 1,185 recoveries. Others included 655 .40-caliber recoveries, 636 .22-caliber recoveries and 355 .45-caliber recoveries.

National Figures

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 available.

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 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.

AR-15 Versus Handguns

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 reporters Colin Miner and Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

Photo credit: Scott Barbour/Getty Images