The FBI just released the murder stats for 2015.

[benEzra]

Murder, by State, Types of Weapons, 2015 (FBI)

[font face="courier new"]Total murders...................... 13,455
Handguns............................ 6,447 (47.9%)
Firearms (type unknown)............. 2,648 (19.7%)
Clubs, rope, fire, etc.............. 1,671 (12.4%)
Knives and other cutting weapons.... 1,544 (11.5%)
Hands, fists, feet.................... 624 (4.6%)
Shotguns.............................. 269 (2.0%)
Rifles................................ 252 (1.9%) [/font]

Total murders were up in a few large cities, with Chicago accounting for a good portion of the increase, per news reports. The rate in most of the nation was more or less unchanged. That link breaks it down by state and type of weapon, but you can download it in Excel and sum the columns. The above stats include the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam.

Looking only at murders committed using firearms, handguns accounted for 92.52%, shotguns 3.86%, and rifles (including "assault weapons&quot 3.62%. If you extrapolate "Firearm - Type Unknown" by those percentages and re-run the totals, the stats would be as follows:

[font face="courier new"]Total murders...................... 13,455
Handguns............................ 8,897 (66.1%)
Clubs, rope, fire, etc.............. 1,671 (12.4%)
Knives and other cutting weapons.... 1,544 (11.5%)
Hands, fists, feet.................... 624 (4.6%)
Shotguns.............................. 371 (2.8%)
Rifles................................ 348 (2.6%) [/font]

[friendly_iconoclast]

1. K&R

[EX500rider]

2. Makes the general freak out about "assault" rifles seem a little misplaced..

....when pistols do about 20x's the killing.
Seems like if you were really interested in lowering the death count you would start there.

[friendly_iconoclast]

3. Handguns are the most criminally misused firearms, even tho there are more rifles & shotguns...

...owned by civilians:

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fv9311.pdf

See page 3, table 3, "Criminal firearm violence, by type of firearm, 1994-2011"

[Egnever]

4. I think that is true if you focus only on the totals

It would be interesting to see stats on mass shootings alone.

I would be willing to bet those numbers would flip. I suppose that might depend on what was considered a mass shooting.

Regardless it is pretty clear handguns are a bigger problem overall.

[EX500rider]

5. Are 50 people dieing in separate locations on the same day..

....somehow less sad/tragic then 50 people dieing in 1 location though?

Especially when it's more like 1,000 people dieing in separate locations Vs 50 in one spot..

[Egnever]

6. They are all tragic

I am not sure how to say this without is sounding offensive in one way or another but I am going to try anyway.

I would be willing to bet that there is a grievance in the vast majority of the hand gun deaths. He took my stuff, I thought he would hurt me , he insulted my girlfriend etc...Not trying to say the victims deserved it though that is certainly how it sounds.

As opposed to the mass shooting where the victims played absolutely no part in their murder.

I know that can be interpreted as victim blaming and that is not what I am trying to do here. Only trying to contemplate the question of is one more or less tragic.

I fully expect I will get reamed for this post but I do think the question you pose is an interesting one philosophically.

Clearly based on numbers alone the higher number has to be the more tragic one right?

[Lee-Lee]

7. You are partially correct

Instead of a personal grievance about 80% of homicides by firearm are drug and/or gang related.

[LAGC]

8. Bad news though... looks like the overall violent crime rate is inching back up...

...after a 20-year decline between 1995 and 2014.

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015/crime-in-the-u.s.-2015/tables/table-1

Hope this isn't a turning point for the worse in coming years ahead.