Handguns are almost three times as likely to be used in mass shootings as rifles, according to a new report from a gun-safety group that appears to cut against gun-control advocates’ push to ban some semiautomatic rifles.
More than three quarters of mass shootings from 1996 to 2016 involved a handgun, while just 29 percent of shooters used a rifle, according to the New York-based Rockefeller[1] Institute, part of a gun safety initiative convened by a handful of mostly Democratic governors.
Some shooters, such as the attack at a Texas school earlier this month, carried both a handgun and a long gun.
The relatively small percentage of mass shootings involving rifles busts one of the “myths” of the gun debate, the new study said.
“I think it would come as a surprise to a lot of people,” said Robert J. Spitzer, a political science professor at SUNY Cortland who is part of the research arm of the multi-state gun group though he didn’t write this new report.
He added, though, that the use of rifles is on the rise in high-profile mass shootings, and said they often account for a higher death toll in shootings.
For example, last year’s Las Vegas shooter “would not have been able to do what he did with a couple of handguns,” Mr. Spitzer said.
Police say Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds of others when he opened fire from his hotel window down onto a music festival. Authorities found in Paddock’s hotel room several “bump stock” devices used to convert semiautomatic weapons into automatic-style ones.
“So for those kinds of reasons, there is a legitimate public policy reason to focus on assault weapons, but it’s also important not to take your eye off the fact that handguns are indeed
