At this point, I don't think the issue is just that it's guns. It's guns that have been designed to be used in war to kill lots of people really fast.
There's a reason that Babe Ruth didn't go to the plate with a tennis racket. No matter how gifted a player he was, he went to the plate with a bat because that's what is needed to knock the ball out of the field. There's a reason these guys aren't taking shotguns. They're taking these weapons of war with them because they know they'll probably die and they want to take as many people with them as possible.
I've seen lots of gunshot wounds. What happens with an AR-15 is not like anything I've seen. It shatters bone. It causes organs to explode. It shreds muscle. The few who survive gunshot wounds with these weapons of war are usually disabled for life.
There's just no good reason for ordinary people to have them. If you have to take this kind of weapon with you to hunt deer, then you're a pretty shitty hunter and should probably buy your venison.
The assault weapons ban expired in 2004. In the past 15 years, we've established that no good comes from people having these weapons out in the public. They have become the preferred weapon for mass killings.
It's a sad statement but while it might be true that most of the owners of these weapons aren't doing harm, it's also true that they're just too dangerous to be available to the public. And because of these weapons, Americans have to wonder if a visit to a movie theater, a night club, a Walmart, a school, a concert- basically any public place- will end in a lethal encounter with one of these weapons. If you're a cop, you always have to wonder if the shooter you're confronting is going to have better and faster weapons than you do.