Myth: Rifles like the AR-15 are extremely dangerous.

Rifles are no more dangerous than hands or feet.

In 2009, there were only 313 unjustifiable homicides committed with any type of rifle [1]. This is out of 110 million rifles in the United States at the time. [2] This implies that of all the rifles in the United States in 2009, 0.00028% were used to commit murders. This means that the homicide rate per 100,000 rifles is 0.28.

That same year, there were 810 unjustifiable homicides committed with hands or feet [1]. The population that year was 305 million, which implies that of the number of pairs of hands and feet in the US (the population), 0.00027% were used to commit murders. This means that the homicide rate per 100,000 pairs of hands/feet is 0.27.

So in 2009, not only were hands and feet used more often to murder people than rifles were (810 vs. 313), but the homicide rate per 100,000 rifles is nearly exactly the same as the homicide rate per 100,000 pairs of hands/feet (0.28 vs 0.27).

These findings indicate that in terms of statistics, rifles are no more deadly than a pair of hands and feet.

Citations:

[1] https://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_08.html
--See data tables 14 and 15 for justifiable homicide data
[2] http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states