Reply #31: So are many in the bottom ten, Bill...

[benEzra]

"The top five states with the highest gun death rates are five states with incredibly weak gun laws," he said, listing Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, New Mexico and Wyoming.

So are many in the bottom ten, Bill. My wife's home state of Maine had the lowest homicide rate in the nation, last time I checked. It also has gun laws that are more gun-owner-friendly than Alabama's.

In Miami, while overall crime is down, the use of semi-automatic weapons is growing.

"These things are dirt cheap," Police Chief John Timoney told Reuters, estimating the street price at $250 each. "We have seen these assault weapons being used time and time again by drug gangs."

Baloney. A "semi-automatic weapon" and an "assault weapon" are two different concepts.

Here's a "semi-automatic weapon":




But the most commonly used firearm in homicides is still the .38/.357 revolver, by far.



The bit about "assault rifles" (sic) being any sort of contributor to the crime problem is bogus. All rifles combined account for less than 3% of homicides nationally, and many states report ZERO rifle homicides in any given year. That's per the FBI, not the NRA:

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/offenses_reported/offense_tabulations/table_20-22.html