As Colorado gun owners and rights activists have been fighting the worst piece of legislation Colorado has ever seen: HB24-1292 “Prohibit Certain Weapons Used in Mass Shootings”, the progressives in the state legislature’s version of a so-called “Assault Weapons” ban, we hae been sifting through the latest crime data that’s available.

And it’s interesting.

According to the latest 2020 FBI-Uniform Crime Report data, if this “Assault Weapons” ban really only banned the scary black rifles, they’d be hitting an extremely low target.

In 2020 there were 8 murders by rifle, and one murder by shotgun. In comparison, there were 40 murders by knives. 

In 2019 there were 5 murders by rifle. 

The two screen shots below are from these spreadsheets that you can download here: 2020 and 2019. You are welcome to download and use the data at will. It was taken directly from the respective FBI-Uniform Crime Report data that is available to the public online.

A Brief Analysis:

There were 209 persons murdered in Colorado in 2019. Rifles were used in 5 of those murders. Handguns were used in 83, and knives, other weapons, and hands (fists and feet) combined were used in 74.

In terms of all murders in 2019, rifles were used in 2.39%. That’s the second lowest percentage, with shotguns being used the least in 1.44% of all Colorado murders, in 2019. Rifles were used much less than even non-firearms weapons and methods, such as knives, other weapons (both being used in around 15% of all murders, that year). Rifles were used less than half as much as bare hands, or feet (use in about 6% of all murders). The most frequent weapon used for murder were handguns, they were used in 39.7% of murders.

In terms of Crude Murder Rates, the rate for rifles is 0.089 per 100k population. That means that less than one tenth of a person is murdered with a rifle for every 100,000 people in Colorado. The Handgun Murder Rate was 1.48 murders per 100k population.

 

 

 

 

Colorado’s homicide rate has been skyrocketing since 2019 when the state made it a priority to start passing more gun control laws. In fact, since 2019, Colorado has passed into law over a dozen new gun control bills ranging from Red Flag laws to safe storage to expanded background checks.

You will see that while 2019 was in the period of the rising trend in the Homicide Rate in Colorado, it was right before the big jump from 2020 to 2022.