There have been more than 600 mass shootings in America so far in 2022. Not a single week in 2022 has passed without at least four mass shootings. But assault weapons aren't the problem, right?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/02/mass-shootings-in-2022/
@Bsmitty Data is old
(2015-2019) and it doesn't distinguish murder from mass murder (4 or more victims in an incident).
@Nupe117 it is older, but I suspect it is still true today.
Now I guess it depends on how you define “assault weapons”. If you go by popular understanding, that would mean primarily assault rifles. But the assault weapon legislation in Congress includes semiautomatic handguns.
If you include them, then yes most mass shootings we’re probably caused by assault weapons, just not assault rifles.
@Nupe117 According to the GOP, mass shootings and gun violence are rooted in “mental health “ issues. Yet the rest of the world has mental health issues and very little gun violence. But 400 million guns aren’t the problem, right? /s
@Nupe117 Most (if not almost all) of those 600 likely involved handguns, not what are traditionally called "assault weapons".
Unfortunately, the incident data lists "type: unknown" for most, so it's hard to know for sure. But one could expect them to follow the overall trend.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8.xls