Tornado Alley (PROG)

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THE TRUTH ABOUT RIFLE STATISTICS [see item at end]

Mon Sep 20, 3:41 AM ET

By FREDRIC U. DICKER

NEW YORKERS are at least four times as likely to be punched to death than to be killed with an assault-style rifle, unpublished state crime statistics show.

The eye-opening figures — obtained by The Post from the state Division of Criminal Justice Services — reveal that New Yorkers are also at least twice as likely to be clubbed to death than shot dead by an attacker wielding one of the semi-automatic rifles previously covered by a federal government ban that expired last week.

The most recent statewide statistics — murder-by-weapon-type figures from 2002 — also show that New Yorkers are at least five times as likely to be stabbed to death with a knife than they are to be shot with an assault rifle.

Of 893 murders committed two years ago, just 22 — or slightly over 2 percent — were carried out using some form of rifle, including assault-rifles, the figures show.

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Gov. Pataki has begun radio commercials — paid for by New York taxpayers — promoting himself to New Hampshire voters, almost four years away from that state's first-in-the-nation presidential primary.

Pataki spokesman Kevin Quinn insisted the ads have nothing to do with the governor's potential presidential ambitions, but are instead part of the state's long-running "I Love New York" tourism campaign.

A Pataki-controlled state agency is spending $225,000 on the ads featuring the governor and targeting potential New England tourists, said Quinn.

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The hot rumor in New York political circles has Roger Stone, the longtime GOP activist, as the source for Dan Rather's dubious Texas Air National Guard "memos."

The irony would be delicious, since Rather became famous confronting President Nixon, in whose service a very young Stone became associated with political "dirty tricks."

Reached at his Florida home, Stone had no comment.

Copyright © 2004 NYP Holdings,Inc. (item of interest highlighted)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=106&ncid=742&e=1&u=/nypost/20040920/...