growing up in texas, i have owned and fired my fair share of guns in my lifetime. i don't currently own a gun because i honestly don't see the "home protection" argument as valid. and i don't hunt so the only reason i would have one is if i really really had to have one.

i think certain assault style weapons should be outright taken off the market like they were before it expired in 2004-ish. i also think it should be mandatory to register your gun, especially assault weapons and handguns. consider that if you want to buy a shotgun, you can get one TODAY *with* ammo but if it resembles a pistol you have to wait the appropriate time period and fill out a lot of paperwork.

of course, this all dodges the fact that what we *really* need is better mental health services. the random mass shooting is definitely the price our society pays for having such free access to guns, but it seems like most of the recent shootings could have been avoided if there was some kind of help available to the shooters to either keep them from going over the edge or put them away before they could enact their plan to kill. the easy part is coming up with and passing stricter gun laws, the hard part is preventing more crazy people from using those guns to their full potential and killing indiscriminately.