Even though I don't own a gun and consider myself a pacifist - I don't think gun control is the answer, except perhaps raising the age to own guns to 21.

One reason - I've done a lot of research and read a lot of studies, and when Australia, for example, severely restricted guns after a mass shooting in, I believe, 1997, the murder rates in that country actually went up while the US murder rates went down.

Australia is an island so they would be able to enforce their gun laws better than in many other places. Yet, according to the actual data, doing so did not help.

However, if you look at who murders - there is actually a profile, and it's usually young men.

Yet, I have friends who are older who grew up firing guns. One friend took his rifle to high school for a marksmanship club. All the members in that club did. He told me sometimes kids got into fights but no one ever got a gun and shot anyone. He told me, "Punching someone was OK to defend yourself. Shooting someone - we never even thought of that."

So the culture used to be very different, at least from what my friend (who is in his late 70s) told me.