Mass shooting in the USA - again ?

I personally am against an all out ban on firearms in the US. However, I have no delusions that the 2nd amendments original purpose still applies today. The people had a right to carry so that they may overthrow the government if sh*t went bad. Even if 100 percent of the country carried a firearm there is absolutely no way they could accomplish such a task with today's military. The average caliber and power of a pistol/rifle/shotgun would barely leave a scratch on today's personal body armor and wouldn't even dent an Abrams Battle Tank. The people would stand absolutely no chance. The amendment was made when the people and the military could stand on fairly even grounds. More realistically today about 25 percent of the population OWN a firearm, I would guess around 1-2 percent have a permit to carry a firearm outside their homes.

Shooting firearms is a hobby for me and that's about it. I keep my handgun and shotgun under lock and key so claiming personal protection is a stretch as I would likely not have time to unlock the cabinet, unlock te gun, load a magazine, insert the magazine in the firearm, chamber a round, and fire before a physical altercation would happen or the guy would run away. But I also don't have to worry about my own gun being used on me. I believe I am a responsible and we'll trained gun owner.

As for gun laws in the US, I don't think that many of the people outside the US understand that every state has their own gun laws. There are federal laws but they are pretty much useless and very hard to enforce. If we take a look at state to state gun laws you will see, for the most part that stricter gun laws lead to lower gun related deaths.

Check these links out:
Firearms Death Rate per 100,000 statistics - states compared - Crime data on StateMaster

Gun laws in the United States (by state) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now I didn't go through every state but just looking at the top 5 and bottom 5 stats on gun deaths per state it was pretty clear that no/little restrictions on guns lead to a much higher death rate than those with strict laws. My state, Texas, falls in the middle of gun restrictions on guns and almost exactly in the middle of the states death rates. I believe their is a correlation. Please note that the link above does not state if the gun related death was caused by homicide, suicide or accident.

I believe it is a "right" to own a firearm in the US but with this right I believe that great responsibility follows. When a population shows they are incapable of taking on this responsibility it is time for the government to force it upon them. I think that laws in most states don't go far enough. There should also be much stricter punishments for breaking a gun related law, not just probation and community service, which seems to be the norm here. Minimum 5 year sentence for carrying a illegal/improperly registered firearm.

Please don't think I'm a crazy gun toting Texas because I enjoy firearms, it is a hobby. I shoot at targets and enjoy hunting. Most gun owners I know fall into the same category as myself. A bad imagine is painted by the few crazy people and criminals in the US.