Limiting the access to assault rifles would limit the capabilities of homicidal maniacs. Where now they can kill 60 and wound 400 or shoot up an entire chuch and kill 26 paritioners and wound 22 more, maybe they only kill 5 or 6 in 1 go with the ban. Its a macabre calculation, but a lot of people would still have their family sitting with them at Thanksgiving.

Nope, only from a retailer at the time. Private sales required nothing.

Either way, the school shooters, like Nikolas Cruz, aren't the most dedicated gun enthusiasts. Most mass shooters just get a tool of mass execution. They usually aren't the ones who will take the time to modify firearms into full auto unless its easy to do (i.e., bump stocks).

The mentality of psychopaths is to inflict as much harm as quickly and easily as possible. Limiting the scope of their access to the tools of mass death is good. Maybe they only get 6 shots off in one load instead of thirty. Maybe the reload time to get those 6 shots off is 15 seconds instead of 7. Its small, but maybe those few seconds lets a daughter get home to her mom that night.

Look, psychopaths are going to psychopath. But, there's a second amendment. What can a gun enthusiast do with an AR15 that they can't do with a CVA? Fight off the fascists? They have drones and tomahawks.