Thanks for the civil reply. I hope we can keep it like that!

I appreciate you accepting that you used the word "fact" when you mean "opinion", but it is a little frustrating that you then decided not to comment on the actual facts that I did use. I am not one of those people who thinks that it is fair to blame guns solely for the 1.5m people that have died at the hands of domestic gunfire in America in the last fifty years or so (some stat, huh?), but I do find it hard when someone like yourself seems to think that they are nothing to do with it.

Those suicide figures alone are terrifying. The problem is that guns are designed to kill. That is why they exist. And they are really good at it.

Re the Cruz thing. There have already been 18 school shootings in America in 2018. How many homemade bombs attacks and car attacks have been in schools in the last ten years? Is it any? I really understand that you want to own a gun to feel safe but I think this leads you to taking self-serving leaps in order to facilitate that. How could a tiny, weak creature like Cruz have killed seventeen people without a gun? The answer is he couldn't have, and wouldn't have. Surely you accept this, even if it doesn't suit your agenda. Yes, there are other ways of killing lots of people, but there is a reason the term "mass shootings" is so commonplace in America.

No, prohibition doesn't work (as an aside, this should mean then that the war on drugs should stop, doesn't it?), but what about having far, far stricter rules? Make it difficult to have a gun. Not impossible, but harder.

Less guns = less deaths from guns. This is obvious, isn't it?

I absolutely agree that there are a host of factors that lead to the appalling gun death problem that America has, and all of them should be looked into. But a huge factor is the fact that there are more guns than people in America.

It's interesting that you mentioned smoking. Look at the generational shift in attitudes towards smoking. Kids today can't believe that people could once smoke anywhere! There was a problem, legislation was passed, and as a consequence, smoking deaths are in a huge decline. And those changes are now what is normal. Why can't guns follow a similar path?

Guns aren't prohibited in Australia. What they have done shows that a change of the rules can improve things. No mass shootings in 22 years. A 60% decline in gun murders. If you have an open mind, then you surely have to look at this and stop to think.

BTW, that stat about knife deaths isn't correct. Here's a starting point for you, but there is plenty of confirmatory info out there to back it up if you don't like Snopes:

https://www.snopes.com/four-times-more-stabbed-than-rifles-any-kind/

You have been caught by confirmation bias. It happens to me all the time! And btw, of course there is knife control! Get caught carrying one and watch what happens.

I am all for freedom, btw. And I am sure that you would agree that children should have the freedom to go to school without the spectre of guns hanging over them. Apologies, that's a bit manipulative, but surely, some changes have to be made? What is in place at the moment is not working. Is it?