It's my personal belief that gun violence is a symptom of a much bigger disease. I base this only on my own experience (anecdotal, a terrible thing to base beliefs on, I know). I live a mere 25 miles from where I grew up. Both cities have very high rates of gun ownership. The place I grew up, Rochester, MI, a wealthy suburb, has negligible crime, while my current place of residence, Detroit...well, we all know the stats. Therefore, it's incorrect to conclude that guns cause crime. Guns are correlated with crime, and they certainly make committing violent crimes easier. But areas with lots of guns are not necessarily ares with lots of violence.

The thing Detroit has that Rochester doesn't is unmitigated poverty, which is itself a form of violence. We can take away every single gun in the country, and kids would still be starving. I wish lawmakers would drop their obsession with treating the symptoms and focus on the disease. The best anti-gun bill would be an effective anti-poverty bill. That I would support.