Honestly, I'd have no problems with silencers and suppressors, or 40rnd mags, or semi-automatic weapons as long we made it sufficiently difficult for nutso people to acquire them.
I've often heard this argument of "bad people and criminals will obtain guns one or another." This isn't exactly true. Most mass shooters have acquired their guns through fully legal methods. There is good evidence that mass shooters do not want to associate with criminals because they don't interact with a seedy criminal unground of arms traffickers...they want guts and glory via suicide by cop.
Lets define a mass shooter:
- Wants to murder people in public place.
- Want to murder indiscriminately
- Targets schools, places of employment, public gatherings
- Has no gang affiliation.
Lets define "gang related gun violence":
- Wants to off members of a rival gang
- Wants to murder rival gang's family members
- Wants to intimidate local government or law enforcement
Yes, most gun violence is committed in urban area with small arms that more often not acquired legally. That's gang violence. The people who get involved in gang violence are often not innocent. Yes, innocent bystanders get killed by gang violence. But there is virtually NO CROSSOVER between gang members and urban folks who acquire illegal weapons and those who commit mass shootings. Therefore, I don't think we should lump together gun violence statistics as a whole with mass shootings.
In the case of gang violence and illegal arms traffiking, the police have every ability to search and seize weapons and prosecute those in possession.
In the case of mass shooters, we can't rely solely on Red Flag laws, as shooters will just stay off the radar until they commit their act. In those cases, preventing them from obtaining the weapons in the first place is really the only solution.