On Wednesday, December 18, 2019 at 11:51:38 AM UTC-5, wrote:
The US has the weakest gun laws in the developed world.

Part of the problem is they lump gang disputes after hours near a
school as a school shooting. When you look at the actual numbers of
what these people fear, it is a pretty remote thing. The kids do have
a higher chance of being killed walking to school or riding with Mom
in a traffic accident.

Humans are just really bad at estimating the probability of an event, much better at imagining the horrible consequences. So we make bad decisions all the time. We respond to what we fear rather than what can harm us.

Every year in the US, guns kill roughly 14,000 by homicide and 22,000 by suicide.

Assault style rifles account for just under .25% of the homicide and .1% of the suicide. So the very first measure to be recommended is to ban these weapons. Why? Because as a nation we fear those guns more, even though they do less harm.

There are two things we could do to start bringing homicide rates down: legalize drugs, ban capital punishment.