As you say, feel good. That is, other than to the people who understand it's a camel's nose. And there are a lot of them.No, Loren. The bulk of gun deaths are suicides and domestic disputes. But the ones that people fear, are the impersonal wiping out of lives. Suicides alone account for 56% of gun deaths. Tragic as that is, most people don’t live in fear that they might kill themselves.The focus on rifles strongly suggests the motive is something other than preventing murder.
They (I) do fear catching a bullet at the grocery store, concert or on the highway, fired by a crazy person just out there doing the random killing thing that crazy people do. That crazy person is using a .223 long gun in almost every case.
So yeah, banning assault l-type rifles isn’t going to make a huge dent in the overall body count but it will make people feel better, i.e. improve the social climate. I think that change would be significant.
Banning rifles will do basically nothing about suicide because a properly aimed handgun is just about as good--and it's a lot easier to aim.
Domestics also the weapon will rarely matter. They're less likely than the average murder to be with a gun at all.
And you're wrong on what the crazy person is using--handgun is more likely than long gun.