{"id":119569,"date":"2026-11-09T09:59:50","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T15:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=119569"},"modified":"2026-11-09T09:59:50","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T15:59:50","slug":"119569","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=119569","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gunowners.mn\/ar-15-ownership-rifle-murders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AR-15s are ten times more common. Rifle murders aren\u2019t keeping up.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/gunowners.mn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/ar-15-study.png\" alt=\"New study: AR-15s are up tenfold. Rifle murders aren't. Rifles share of gun murders fell from 4.9% to 3.6%.\" width=\"330\" height=\"330\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Americans own more AR-15s and AK-pattern rifles than ever before. If the people pushing to ban them were right, murders with rifles would be climbing right along with them. A new study of FBI data shows the opposite.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What the study found<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/crimeresearch.org\/2026\/11\/with-all-the-concern-about-assault-weapons-how-has-the-share-of-murders-with-rifles-changed-over-time\/\">Crime Prevention Research Center<\/a> looked at how often rifles are used in murders before, during, and after the federal \u201cassault weapons\u201d ban of 1994 to 2004, using the FBI\u2019s Uniform Crime Reports:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Ownership is up tenfold.<\/strong> AR-15s and AK-47s went from about 1 per 100 Americans when the federal ban expired in 2004 to 10.2 per 100 in 2025.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The ban didn\u2019t work.<\/strong> Rifles were used in 4.8% of firearm murders before the ban and 4.9% while it was in effect. The researchers found no statistically significant difference.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Since it expired, the share has fallen.<\/strong> Rifles accounted for 3.6% of firearm murders after the ban ended, even as these rifles became ten times more common.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And those numbers overstate the problem. The FBI counts every kind of rifle together, from deer rifles to .22s, so AR-15s and rifles like them are only part of an already small share.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why it matters in Minnesota<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 2027 session opens January 12 with DFL control of the House, the Senate, and the governor\u2019s office. The day after the election, Governor-elect Amy Klobuchar said the 2026 omnibus gun bill \u201cis going to get passed\u201d and \u201ccertainly should be one of our top priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That bill, SF 4067, passed the Senate 34-33 last May. It would have banned dealer sales of most semi-automatic rifles and of magazines over 17 rounds, and made every owner register the ones they already have with the state, pay a fee, and renew every three years, or face criminal charges. Other 2026 bills would have banned nearly all semi-automatic rifles outright.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2027, the DFL is poised to try to ban the sale, transfer, and possession of these firearms. The data says it won\u2019t make anyone safer. It will only turn law-abiding Minnesotans into criminals for owning the most popular rifle in America. <a href=\"https:\/\/gunowners.mn\/take-action\/2027-session\/what-to-expect\/\">Here\u2019s what to expect in 2027.<\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Supreme Court is weighing in too<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On December 2, the US Supreme Court hears Viramontes v. Cook County, a challenge to Cook County, Illinois\u2019 ban on the AR-15 and rifles like it. The MN Gun Owners Law Center and the Caucus <a href=\"https:\/\/gunowners.mn\/our-programs\/legal-action\/viramontes-v-cook-county\/\">filed an amicus brief<\/a> in the case. A ruling is expected by June, and it could decide whether bans like the one coming to Minnesota survive at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AR-15s are ten times more common. Rifle murders aren\u2019t keeping up. Americans own more AR-15s and AK-pattern rifles than ever before. If the people pushing to ban them were right, murders with rifles would be climbing right along with them. A new study of FBI data shows the opposite. What the study found The Crime &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=119569\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goobermint","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119570,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119569\/revisions\/119570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}