Never one to miss the opportunity to exploit a tragedy, California Senator Dianne Feinstein has already taken to the airwaves to call for a new “assault weapons” ban following the Friday shooting at LAX.

According to POLITICO,

Appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, Feinstein paid tribute to fallen TSA officer Gerardo Hernandez, the first TSA employee to die in the line of duty, then turned her attention to guns. A strong supporter of an assault weapons ban, the California Democrat said, “the weapon was a .223 MP-15, where the MP stands for military and police, clearly designed not for general consumption … Same gun that was used at Aurora. Would I do a bill? Sure, I would do a bill. I mean, I believe this down deep in my soul.”

What Feinstein failed to mention, what she always fails to mention is that fewer than 375 people are killed by rifles annually in the United States. According the FBI’s 2010 homicide data, there were 358 people killed by rifles of any kind in 2010. That includes all types of rifles, not just semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15.

This puts rifle deaths at the same level as rare diseases and illnesses in its ranking as a cause of death in the US.

You are actually more likely to be struck by lightning in the United States than you are to be killed a by a rifle. According the National Weather Service, approximately 400 people, on average (based on annual averages 2001-2010) are struck by lightning each year. (Source: National Weather Service).

Feinstein introduced a new “assault weapons” bill earlier this year, but it failed miserably during a vote in the Senate back in April, when the Senate failed to pass any of the numerous proposed gun bills being discussed.