I have still yet to figure out what politicians actually think they are going to do.
Are you gonna ban AR-15s and confiscate them all? Good luck with that. I think you would be hard pressed to find enough LEOs willing to do that....certain locales in far left areas, sure, but as a whole, I don't think that will happen. I could see governors and even Sheriffs and Police Chiefs saying they wouldn't enforce a confiscation.
Are you going to ban the future manufacture and sell of AR-15s? What would you accomplish by doing that? There has to be what....6 million ARs in circulation (perhaps more). That is like trying to ban the Chevy 350 V8 or Redwing boots. They are everywhere and aren't exactly "rare".
Are you going to find ways to make it more difficult for people to legally purchase AR-15s? All you will do is create a black market for AR-15s where they are sold face-to-face.
I guess I don't really see the thought process. This is coming from a guy who once owned a .308 DPMS SASS for about a year, but has never owned an "AR-15". I own one stripped lower and have never taken the time to build it up. I don't have a problem at all with AR-15s, just always had some other type of firearm/shooting discipline I was more interested in. I'm only mentioning this to show I don't have a major axe to grind with this issue....just the flawed logic of politicians, the media and some of the public. I don't see where politicians think that anything they do will solve "the problem". You are literally talking about stripping the rights of 330,000,000 people for the actions of less than half a dozen people per year.
I think most people will agree that we want to keep firearms out of the hands of mentally ill people. The question is: how can this goal be accomplished without trampling on the rights of 300,000,000+ people.