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Biden Administration: ‘Offensive’ For Speaker Johnson To Blame Gun Violence On ‘The Human Heart’

The Biden Administration fired back at House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) comments blaming the “hearts” of shooters, not the weapons themselves, for gun violence on Friday—marking the first public clash between President Joe Biden and Johnson, two days after he was elected speaker.

Speaker of the House Quote

“At the end of the day, the problem is the human heart. It’s not guns, it’s not the weapons,” Johnson told Hannity. “We have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves. That’s the Second Amendment and that’s why our party stands so strongly for that.”

RESULTS: White House wants to renew assault weapons ban, amid Republican pushback.
The White House renewed its repeated calls for Congress to pass an assault weapons ban in the wake of the Wednesday shootings in Lewiston, Maine, that authorities say left 18 people dead and another 13 injured. Johnson, speaking to reporters Thursday about the shootings, said “It is a dark time in America,” adding “Prayer is appropriate in a time like this that the evil can end and this senseless violence can stop.”

Some statistics for thought

Seldom mentioned are the firearms deaths that were used as a defensive measure for self-defense. In 2021, 1244 deaths were caused by defensive gun use. [Source - safeatlast.co/blog/gun-self-defense-statistics]

More people were killed by a blunt object — such as a hammer or a club — than a rifle of any kind in 2017, according to an FBI crime report.


- In 2019, of 10,258 gun homicides, 6368 (62%) were committed with handguns while only 364 (3.5%) involved rifles. Comparatively, of the 3,669 murders committed with means other than firearms, 397 were committed with blunt instruments such as hammers and clubs.

- Annual deaths caused by firearms (handguns and other types) in 2019 numbered 9,649; annual deaths from personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.) and blunt objects (clubs, hammers, etc.) numbered 997.

- In 2017, more people were killed by a blunt object such as a hammer or a club than a rifle of any kind. 467 people were killed by a blunt object, while 403 people were killed by some type of rifle.

FBI data shows more deaths by ‘hands, fists, feet’ than rifles. But there’s more to know
"More people die from hands, fists, feet, than rifles. Guess we should ban limbs now…," reads the May 25 post. Underneath, a graphic titled "Number of murder victims in the United States in 2020 by the weapon used" shows rifle deaths at 455 and deaths from "personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.)" at 662. The post includes a link to a website called Statista.

FBI data from 2020 does show that more people died from injuries sustained from other people’s fists, feet, and hands than from rifles. But there’s more you should know about that data before you use it to draw conclusions.

Statista researchers pulled data from the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer, which does show that of the 17,813 homicides reported in 2020, 662 of them were committed with "personal weapons" — which the site indeed describes as hands, fists, feet, etc. — and 455 homicides were committed with rifles. So strictly going by the numbers, the post’s claim is accurate, but there are important caveats.

The FBI’s numbers also show that of all the homicides reported, 13,663 were committed with firearms of any kind, or about 77%. Only about 4% of homicides overall were from hands, fists and feet.

And 4,863 of those gun homicides were committed with firearms of a "type not stated," meaning law enforcement agencies didn't specify in their data reporting which type of gun was used. Enough rifles could be among those to push that total higher than personal weapons — even 5% would do it — though there’s no way to know for certain.

The FBI’s data is based on voluntary reporting. Not every law enforcement agency files an expanded homicide report. These statistics are based on reports from 15,875 of 18,623 law agencies, meaning the number of homicides is likely higher. The Centers for Disease Control, for instance, lists 19,384 gun homicides in the U.S. in 2020, based on U.S. death certificate information provided by the National Center for Health Statistics.

The FBI statistics show that handguns were used in most of the gun homicides, with 8,029. That’s likely because "violent crime is typically higher in urban areas than rural ones, and handguns are better suited for urban living," said Adam Lankford, a criminology and criminal justice professor at the University of Alabama.