Lott needs to argue that if the teachers or staff was allowed to be armed, the killer could have been stop. Current laws do not allow teachers or staff to have guns on gun free zone schools.
Arguing that an AR-15 is no different from a hunting rifle (technically correct) is a PR disaster because the uninformed do not know that. Lott should point out that the US cannot ban semi autos because it is the best gun to have in self defense (bad economy and fear of crime would understand that). Second he should point out that guns are used 160,000 times annually to thwart off crime which can potentially resulted in rape, death or serious injuries to an unarmed victim. Crazy people, criminals and terrorists will get the semi auto no matter what the laws are. Banning these guns from law abiding armed citizens will endanger their ability to defend themselves against better armed attackers. There is no perfect law to prevent that crazies from getting guns absolutely. Current laws stop most of the unlawful buying of guns, but a few will get thru. When that happens how will liberals deal with that. Gun bans will make it worst for the law abiding citizen, but allowing law abiding citizens to be armed makes better sense. In summary, these types of killers in the first place want to commit suicide and take out as many people in the process to get headlines. Notice they never try this at bars frequent by bikers or off duty cops.
Finally the problem is not institutionalizing mentally violent people who are incapable of taking meds on time. They wander the streets causing violence on the rest of society until they snap and commit murder/mayhem. The US does not need more gun control, they need mental people control.
The most prominent platform for Semi-Auto pistols is the Colt 1911, that is more than 100 years old and is virtually unchanged since John Browning developed it. The AK 47 is DAMN near 70 years old, the modern ‘Assault Rifle, IS 70 years old and developed in Germany during WW II.
The Genie is out of the bottle and any CRIMINAL could get hold of one if he wants one. All gun laws do is to prevent the law abiding, IE: GOOD GUYS, from having the protection offered by one. ALSO there are an estimated 250-300 MILLION firearms in private citizens hands in the U.S.A., How are you going to get rid of all of them?
I kept waiting for Lott to mention this...it would have absolutely blown dear Soledad's very small brain.