Originally Posted by
Bogg
Combination of things. The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of violence committed with guns is the small scale one, two, or three homicide shootings that get a 30-second blurb on the evening news and that's it. Keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally unstable (including people with clean criminal records but with histories of alcohol/drug abuse) is going to do far more in terms of addressing gun violence than banning one particular type of weapon. Unfortunately(for some), a big part of that would be a beefed-up screening process with more in-depth background checks; vastly increased oversight on gun dealers; and, yes, that boogeyman that gun-rights advocates hold over their audiences' heads: universal registration of firearms.
That being said, if someone does get it into their head that they're going to commit a mass-shooting event, you can kill more people faster with a military-style rifle than you can with a revolver.