Serious question, but when did the assault type weapons or high powered rifles etc become legal in the US? Have they always been so? The number of mass shootings is increasing significantly as is the number of general firearm deaths and suicide deaths.

There is also only a very loose connection between gun ownership and gun death rates when you look at it state by state.

Something has changed in the last 10 years. Don't get me wrong, I would ban these assault weapons tomorrow and raise the gun ownership rate to at the very least 21, but it strikes me that the change is not actually in relation to access to guns and the severity of the guns - is that right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_vi..._United_States