As someone who shoots for their occupation often, owns many firearms, and is frustrated by the ignorance among gun-grabbers I'm just going to lay out some facts.
We (civilians) have had semi-automatic firearms in the US for over 100 years. Gun ownership per-capita is higher the further back in time you go, yet school shootings have increased. School shootings account for a tiny tiny fraction of deaths by firearm every year, the vast majority being suicides first, then by gang-related crime in strict gun control areas. School shootings, AND mass shootings in general, are the smallest statistic from all gun related violence.
The strictest regulations restrict the carrying of a handgun, which is really only practical to defend one's self from a single, close encounter. Yet, people are determined to restrict sem-automatic rifles, which are the least used weapon in crime. In Los-Angeles, one of the strictest gun areas in the nation, I cannot carry a handgun on my person. However, I can have a long gun (AR-15, shotgun, bolt-action etc) in my Jeep at all times. That is because long guns are rarely to almost never used in crimes.
Civilians can not own (easily) "assault" style weapons. To call it that is ignorant. Just because a gun looks like a full-auto M4 does into make it an assault weapon, or even an assault "style" weapon. An AR-15 has the exact same capability as a mini-14 ranch rifle, it just looks like an M4 and it easier to mount accessories.
According to FBI statistics, REPORTED data (meaning there are countless events that go unreported, I have had a few), firearms are used to legally defend law abiding citizens over 200,000 times every year. That swamps the amount of gun-crime by a large amount.
Gun violence deaths (not suicides, accidents, or self defense) are one of the smallest causes of death in the country.
Making firearms harder to obtain just disarms law abiding citizens. Someone who has no history, no red flags, and no mental illness could bypass any gun law you can think of, and STILL commit a mass murder. You cannot ban free will.
We have a social dysfunction in our country, not a gun problem. There is less regard for human life, disconnection from human interaction, lack of community, lack of morals, and irresponsible parenting. Kids go to school where they are further neglected by apathetic teachers in a system set up to put them in perpetual debt. No, it is not guns we need to focus on. We need to focus on our American Culture.
There is a very real reason why we have the first and second amendment so early in our Bill of Rights. Our culture is sick, and it's affecting both of them. We have rights, but not requirements to be mature, responsible, and moral.
...With that said, if there ever were a "gun ban" in the U.S. It would be the largest civil war ever fought and would literally change the planet.
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