I pretty much agree. I think a lot of the emphasis on school shoots is Democrat strategy. They spent decades fruitlessly trying to scare white people with “inner city violence”, gang violence, “urban youth”, “super predators”, “racial jungles”. Between white flight and libs becoming slightly less shitty, along with just good old fashioned burn out, that fearmongering about black kids with hand guns became less and less effective over time. Colombine was what they needed to re-invigorate gun control and violence against youth as a political whip. Their triumphant gun control bill under Clinton was a big failure - It temporarily suppressed gun violence to an extent, but when it sunset under Bush things did not return to the status quo - Gun violence drastically increased. Since then their gun control efforts have had at best mixed success - California and some East Coast states have imposed draconian arms control laws. New York City, for instance, is safer than it’s ever been, but it’s also a horrifying police state in the grip of a 50,000 strong fascist army. You’re not even allowed to carry a fucking pocket knife, and even years after Michael Bloomberg’s frighteningly oppressive “Crimestat” the police still systematically and very effectively target minorities for harassment and repression. So it’s safer, sorta, but I would hesitate to assign any one cause to that. I’m sure the total ban on arms played a large role, but one must also factor in ruthless repression of poor people, minorities, ruthless gentrification, and one of the most overfunded and repressive regime security forces in the world. I think the NYPD is like the worlds 6th or 8th largest and best funded standing army.

But stepping away from Gun Control taken at face value, ie gun control for the purpose of reducing violence, their shift has been an enormous success. Along with abortion they’ve successfully very sharply divided their base from the GOP base, turning huge numbers of people in to defacto single issue voters who are poorly informed and largely don’t have any real understanding of the issue beyond the nightly spectacle of violence on social media. They’ve very successfully used it to whip fundraising and votes, promising results they’ve never delivered and giving their base a strong thought terminating cliche to use against dissenters; Anyone who opposes arms control is an evil maniac or a republican stooge. Anyone who opposes a blanket ban on AR15s, a weapon used in a miniscule fractions of all killings, is a psychopath. It very reliably shuts down any discussion of the real, major problems - hand guns, austerity, poverty. A commonly raised argument against Democrat gun control schemes is one that probably seems obvious to most leftists; The cops will use the laws as further justification for leveling state terror against minorities and poor people, while the ideologically motivated middlish class Nazis who actually carry out these shootings will be ignored. The gun control schemes will result in an enormous expansion of police power, but since the US operates on racial terror and economic violence, it will not achieve it’s stated goal.

There was one interesting example, I’m not sure if it counts, but in Kenosha a black man leading a group of armed, mostly black people in patrolling the streets saw a group of people with rifles pointed at him hiding in the dark on top of a building. He pointed his weapon light at them to identify them. They were cops, and he was arrested for assault or whatever. The white cops were allowed to aim weapons at minorities, but the minority man who aimed back, not to attack but merely to identify them, was subjected to state violence. I should point out; DO NOT USE YOUR WEAPON LIGHT LIKE THIS. One of the four basic rules of firearms is don’t point your gun at anything you’re not ready and willing to destroy. Weapon lights are for identifying targets, not general use. Carry a separate flashlight for general light purposes.