Is someone holding a gun more likely to think others are armed? New study says yes.

[spin]

25. No, you didn't state that but it is a common talking point for many gun control advocates. ...

It is true that AR-15 style rifles have been used in recent massacres but the reality is that so have shotguns and pistols.

Seung-Hui Cho used two pistols to kill 32 people and wound 17 others in the Virginia Tech massacre. One was a 9mm Glock 19 with a 15 round magazine. the other a .22 LR Walther P22 with a 10 round magazine.
Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seung-Hui_Cho

In the Colorado shooting Holmes started with a 12 gauge Remington 870 shotgun, then used a Smith & Wesson M&P15 AR-1 style rifle until it jammed and finished with a Glock .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/us/aurora-gunmans-lethal-arsenal.html

If you wish to stop all massacres by banning guns you would, at the minimum, have to ban and confiscate all semi-auto rifles, pump and semi-auto shotguns and all semi-auto pistols. But then the shooter would just carry several revolvers so you would have to ban and confiscate them too. Of course then the killer would just use gasoline or explosives. A gallon of gasoline can kill a lot of people as can explosives.

Thanks for the link.