Believe it or not, AR-15’s and rifles and in general make up a small percentage of homicides, handguns make up the majority of homicides in FBI statistics. You’re also around 5 times more likely to be stabbed to death then killed with a rifle. As a gun owner myself, I think the problem causing most violent crime is mental health and socioeconomic problems, especially considering the fact that cities tend to have a lot more homicides then rural areas (see table 8).. Also considering the 1994-2004 assault weapons ban was found to have mixed results. One of the things noted in this article states that because there was a grandfather clause, it made guns grandfathered in much more expensive (this happened with machine guns when the registry closed in 1986, they now range in price from $9k-$300k depending on what you’re looking at) and thus less accessible to criminals, so they ended up turning to semi autos that weren’t banned. Instead of arguing over whether a certain gun should or shouldn’t be legal, I’d say the best thing our nation could do is find a solution that both sides would agree to, specifically Group Violence Intvention programs (aka Community Violence Intervention programs). Programs such as these have actually been proven to reduce violent crime and crimes involving firearms as much as 60%. I myself support these programs being implemented and I’d bet the majority of gun owners would as well considering that no rights are being infringed, no guns are being banned, violent crime is being reduced and a significant number of lives are being saved.