You hand wave away ease of access, but it probably matters. It certainly matters at the margin.
It is plainly obvious to any US citizen that has spent a significant amount of time outside the US, that the problem is guns.
The guns haven't changed in 60 years, and in fact regulations have increased across the board on both purchasing and manufacturing.
But, let's say it is "so obviously" the guns- how is "what is the solution" some kind of naive or ignorant question? Do you know the solution?
Carry regulations have decreased as evidenced in this animated map:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Right_to_Carry,_timeline....
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_concealed_carry_in_...
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concealed_carry_in_the_United_...
In 1986 there were 16 no-issue states (including Texas(!)); in 2022 there are zero. One unrestricted carry state in 1986, 21 in 2022.
We had an assault weapons ban in the US, for a while, under Clinton. It worked. We should still have it.
The solution is to ban assault weapons, outright, and then institute strict background checks, without any loopholes. The vast majority of the public supports this.
Was that clear enough? Yes, I do know the solution.
Was it an AR-15 with a ProMag 65-round drum magazine? Or did he bring in his Glock with several 9mm 40-round magazines?
Something has changed in our gun culture, for sure.
1. What kind of gun? Semi-auto or bolt action? 5.56, 30-30, .22LR?
2. How many guns did each person have? Each household?
3. What was the per capita ownership rate in the US when he was in school? (There are currently more guns than people in the US: 120.50 firearms per 100 people.)
I'm in New Zealand. New Zealand has guns. You need to take a class and be approved by the police who interview you and inspect your gun safe. Pistols are much harder to get. More than 10% of people have a gun license. There is almost no culture of using guns for self-defense against other humans. Farmers consider them necessary tools on the farm, hunters use them to hunt food, and DoC workers use them to cull pests (so do farmers). I also feed my dog about one-third of her diet by shooting rabbits and possum. Recently certain semi-automatic weapons were prohibited, but even before that we didn't have school shootings. Sometimes a family household would be slaughtered by a member of that household. Last night in Auckland seven houses were shot up in gang related violence.
At what point are we going to start blaming the criminals and not the implement they chose to use to commit their crimes?
Do those things happen in those countries on a daily basis?
* https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting
There were 10 people murdered in Buffalo barely a week ago, and now there's been 22 people murdered.
How many 'mass knifings' have occurred in Japan in the last ten days? Were there two? Were there two 'mass drivings' in Japan in the last ten days?
Obviously this is the criminals fault. Knowing that doesn’t actually solve anything though. People are looking for solutions.
We have car control. Operating a vehicle requires a licence, training, registry and regular checks. Unlike owning a gun, which is inconceivable to everybody in the rest of the world.
Obviously there is criminal intent under all this but guns unequivocally amplify the impact. It's very hard to kill 25 people with a backpack of knives - this isn't a weekly occurrence, like shootings. You can't drive a truck down the corridors of a school.
I honestly don't know why we argue about this. Is there anything anybody could say that would change your mind?
Except there was a police officer right outside the building that engaged:
> The suspect was immediately engaged outside the building as he approached the school by a Uvalde Independent School District police officer, who was shot by the suspect, the sources said.
* https://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-elementary-school-reports-ac...
Not the first time even an immediate reaction still didn't prevent deaths and injuries:
> Police at the scene engaged him within a minute of the first shots being fired, firing 18 rounds and hitting the gunman several times.[5] The police chief credited the fast response to a heavy police presence with "many, many officers in the park".[18]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilroy_Garlic_Festival_shootin...
