Thanks for the excellent, civil conversation on this hard topic.
As someone who likes numbers, I found this very interesting:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/04/us/gun-violence-graphics/The first two data points are talked about a lot, but starting at the third, I think it gets interesting.
The homicide rate in the US is less than half of what it was in 1980.
Mass shootings are not the big public health problem they're made out to be, even in the US. They are relatively low in terms of the number of deaths involved. The media spends a lot of hours on them though.
Gun violence OTOH is a public health problem, with most gun deaths being suicides (~60%). Suicide (by all methods) is also a huge public health problem and the second leading cause of death for 15-34 year olds, after accidents.
It's sad to me that the media doesn't focus on the mental health and addiction crisis in the US. 129 people die from drug overdose every day. 13% of American adults take anti-depressants. I'm not saying people with depression are violent, just that there's a big problem with mental health in the US and that the violence problem is a symptom of something bigger. Even though I hate guns and support better regulating guns I don't believe that will make much difference in our violence problem. The media should be talking more about our mental health crisis and our violence problem and less about mass shootings and gun laws.