I will say something that will sound extremely insensitive. As a Canadian I stopped feeling sorry about Americans pretending to feel sorry and shocked about these repetitive and senseless events of gun violence many many years ago because I realized they don't really care. They just pretend to care.
Same cycle every single ****ing time:
1) Some ******* gets access to guns way too easily and goes on a killing spree
2) People act outraged and shocked with some crying thrown in
3) Politicians come out with self serving PR statements about the importance of mental health or gun control
4) One side of the population eats up the excuses or worse is ok with it as long as they get to carry around automatic weapons (*for hunting* or *self defense*)
5) The other side of the population is too cowardly to meaningfully act
6) Gun lobby comes out in full force threatening politicans talking about regulation of said weapons so that gun companies can keep printing money while blaming said mental health
7) A few days later everybody moves on
8) Rinse and repeat.
You're Canadian, well that explains a lot. As an American I typically don't worry about others feeling sorry for us. So no reason to feel bad about being insensitive.
I question your understanding of guns and our gun laws. I also often find those that scream for banning guns have zero understanding of guns. Have never been around one. There is a video where a guy sets up a table in a sidewalk with several shotguns and an AR on one side and then a round that each weapon would fire in the other side, lined up smallest to largest. It was comical to watch how many people when asked to pick the "deadliest" gun on the table picked the AR and then asked to match the round the AR would fire pick the largest round on the table, which was a 30-06. No one picked the 30-06 rifle because it had a nice wooden stock and looked like Grandpa's hunting rifle.
To your points. I agree with the basis of most. But who is carrying automatic weapons around? Outside of those with special firearms licenses, no law abiding citizen is walking around with automatic weapons.
As defiant and Steve pointed out it's far more complex than guns. Lack of institutionalizing those that are insane, lack of help for those that are mentally ill, adopting laws/policies that encourage drug and alcohol abuse among those with less severe mental illness leading to homelessness, addiction and ultimately violence. Lack of family structure in many homes, young males with bad or no male role models, again passing laws/policies to excuse violent behavior while simultaneously reducing the consequences of such behavior.
I do not believe in God myself. I would classify myself as agnostic, but I do believe at its core it's a positive. I believe in many of the teachings/values.
Only in the acts of gun violence do we blame the tool. In no other tragic situations do we blame the tool. When someone drives drunk or plows through a crowd of people or uses a box truck full of fertilizer to blow up a building/people do we blame the vehicle or the fertilizer for that matter. When someone uses a knife to attack maiming and killing large groups of people there is no outcry to ban knives.
It's a lazy argument to avoid the real issues. Which is mental health and lack of enforcement of laws on the books. I would also argue no sane person murders another person.
Gun laws don't work, most cities in the US have very restrictive gun laws, yet have the most gun violence - typically involving a pistol. And the overwhelming of those are from illegal weapons or illegally obtained weapons. And to the point of easily gaining access to guns. Yes that is true and I would say the tragic shootings that typically garner media attention often involve legally obtained guns (In the KC shooting it's unlikely that will be the case).
However, that makes up a fraction of the gun violence in the US. The majority of the gun violence is in the cities, by gang members often by very young kids with ghost guns or stolen guns.
Ghosts guns are smuggled into the US from places like the Philippines. They have been essentially refurbished for a lack of a better term, often resemble a Glock 9 and have no way of being traced, distributed throughout the US by gangs and cartels. So again, adding additional, often unconstitutional gun laws will not stop this problem.
So my overall point is it's lazy thinking to sum up gun violence in the US to guns are bad.
