A new study from the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) finds that ownership of AR-15 and AK-47 style rifles has climbed to an all-time high even as the share of murders committed with rifles has continued to decline.
The CPRC study reports that ownership of these rifles rose from about 1 percent of the population at the end of the federal “assault weapons” ban to 10.2 percent in 2025 — roughly a tenfold increase. Over that same period, the study found the percentage of murders committed with rifles fell from 4.8 percent in 1994 to 2.67 percent in 2025.
The data also show that the highest number of rifle murders occurred between 1994 and 2004, the decade when the federal assault weapons ban was in effect.
The findings echo other federal crime data. FBI figures previously cited by Breitbart News showed that more than three and a half times as many people were stabbed to death in 2020 as were killed with all types of rifles combined. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report also showed that more than twice as many people were killed with knives and other cutting instruments than with rifles in 2021.
Separately, Pew Research data cited in March 2025 found that rifles of all kinds — including models commonly labeled “assault weapons” — accounted for just 4 percent of U.S. gun murders in 2023.
Taken together, the figures indicate that as rifle ownership has grown sharply over the past three decades, the share of murders committed with rifles has moved in the opposite direction.
