>Back in my parents and grandparents days these weapons were just as accessible and deadly.
They weren't nearly as accessible. The prevalence of firearms in the US today is the result of postwar efforts to create a domestic market for surplus arms and ammunition, which resulted in a exponential increase in the manufacture and sale of firearms, and a normalization of guns across American culture that didn't exist prior. There wasn't even a Constitutionally recognized right to own a firearm for self defense until 2008.
Ignoring the correlation between the increased availability of guns and the increase in gun violence is specious. Most gun violence isn't even committed by mentally ill people, but the ease with which mentally ill people can and do get their hands on firearms is an obvious part of the problem.
They weren't nearly as accessible. The prevalence of firearms in the US today is the result of postwar efforts to create a domestic market for surplus arms and ammunition, which resulted in a exponential increase in the manufacture and sale of firearms, and a normalization of guns across American culture that didn't exist prior. There wasn't even a Constitutionally recognized right to own a firearm for self defense until 2008.
Ignoring the correlation between the increased availability of guns and the increase in gun violence is specious. Most gun violence isn't even committed by mentally ill people, but the ease with which mentally ill people can and do get their hands on firearms is an obvious part of the problem.