I'm sorry, so they're going to.... what?

Take away all of my cutlery? Then take away all of my sports equipment? Then take all of my sticks, followed by all of my ROCKS?

Are they going to take away all of my guitars, particularly my bass? What about all of my writing implements, and anything that can fit in my hand and weighs more than two pounds?

Pretty sure I've shown how farcical this whole thing is. An "assault weapon" is LITERALLY anything that can be used to attack someone offensively. And you can just as easily call it a DEFENSE weapon, because that's EXACTLY what it is.

Violence isn't defined by content, but by INTENT. People are always going to try to kill people. And you know what? Punishment doesn't stop violence, nor does legislation or penalization. We won't even get into the debate around registered VS black market, because that's really tangential this conversation.

The only real DETERRENCE to violence is the ability to apply equal and opposing violence - along the idea of mutually assured destruction. The bully doesn't stop picking on you because he go detention, or because her big stick got taken away - they stop because you learn how to defend yourself, and you carry a BIGGER stick.

Any other argument is sheer politics and stupidity. Like they say, "Guns don't kill people..." And yeah, that's an old hack, for sure - but then, old hacks, like stereotypes, persist because they're TRUE.