Went digging through the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports archives to make this chart. Banning “assault rifles” is not going to significantly reduce murders. If you want to fix that problem by regulating firearms, you’ll have to look at handguns.
Two things to note here: First, all violent crime fell dramatically during the 90s. Second, we’re getting better at treating gunshot victims, so mortality rates have fallen.
Aaron, you’re looking for the “Crime in the United States” reports–the index is on that UCR page. I didn’t link the individual reports because a.) there’s a dozen of them, and b.) I had to trawl through old PDFs to get them. The FBI’s published data only goes back to 1992, sadly, but I did submit a request for their full crime statistics, including scanned PDFs back to 1930. That arrived this week; when I get a chance I’ll dig into it and make an expanded chart.
I don’t see the firearm murders per year by weapon type at the UCR link you provided. Can you provide a direct link to the numbers or instructions on where to find them on the UCR website?
Also, why did you choose 1992 (only two years before the AWB) as your start date?