The right wing rage machine is right to fear the cries of white mothers and pleas from white children to stop the violence. All guns are made to kill. The AR-15 is the weapon of choice because it is the consolation prize for the gun makers. If the killers in the massacres of Sandy Hook, Aurora, and Parkland had not used the AR-15 to commit murder than a hand gun would certainly be the next logical choice. The only difference is not as many people would have died and been injured. The hand gun has killed more people than an AR-15 and yet no one credible has recommended its ban.

Until now.

Guns are the easiest and most efficient way of killing for protection and otherwise. Ban the AR-15 and killings by guns will continue. It’s not just one type of gun that’s the problem but the proliferation of guns. A gun is as easy to get as apple pie. Guns are a cultural phenomenon.

But we may be at a tipping point because weeping white mothers and fed up white and articulate teenagers are a force to be reckon with. Their advocacy will ensure that there will be an assault weapons ban within 4 years’ time. A cooling off period will commence before the real battle over gun rights begins; the repeal of the 2nd Amendment. I for one don’t want my grandchildren fighting this fight again 40 years from now. By then the culture would have changed plenty to sustain a gun ban. But an American life without gun violence could give the false impression that guns aren’t that much of a problem. Worse, gun makers turn to the black market for profit, stoking a crime wave and igniting fear. The right to bear any arms will be debated again, and again public safety will be challenged by the individual right to own guns. There is a slippery slope to ban guns. Let’s lean into it.

Update: Former Justice John Paul Stevens pushed the courts to clarify that the Second Amendment granting of rights to bear arms existed in the militia.