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I grew up in a pretty liberal area around lots of gun enthusiasts. Some of them liked to hunt, others were just really protective of their property.

I now live in a pretty conservative area around lots of gun enthusiasts. Some of them like to hunt, others are just really protective of their property.

Gun violence doesn't come from responsible gun owners, it comes from gangs (usually stolen guns), mentally unwell people (often stolen), and police (kind of both of the previous groups...). The solution isn't "fewer scary guns in general," but "better checks to reduce the guns that get to bad people."

My suggestion is to attack each of the problems separately:

• gangs - invest in poor areas to increase opportunities, legalize recreational drugs, promote free contraception options, etc
• mental health - increase access to mental health services, make requirement for locking up firearms (increase barrier to access), require private firearm sales to go through gun dealer or police (to facilitate background checks), etc
• police - split force into unarmed and armed groups, with armed police having higher expectations, training and salaries

Gun control legislation I've seen so far is mostly useless, since it attacks "scary guns" like the AR-15 style guns, which are a minority among gun violence by statistics, which are dominated by suicides and gang violence (both often use handguns, not AR-15 style rifles).

I’ve been in potentially deadly situations but guns were irrelevant to the equation.

Most of the real danger in my life is the result of guns being in the hands of people who want to kill me because I walked on their grass or something

I feel like this comment could go either way.