Yeah, I'm angry at the shooter, of course. But the shooter knew what he was doing, and turned himself in voluntarily. The punishment doesn't phase him. Anger at him seems- impotent. Hence the search for other things that we could have done to prevent or at least mitigate this kind of thing, hence the turn to guns.
The fact of the matter is, the assault weapon (AR-15) the guy used would have been covered under the AWB of 2004. Whether, without this weapon, casualties would have almost certainly been less than the 40. The AR-15 is a very powerful weapon, the civilian equivalent of the M-16. It was by far the most powerful thing in his arsenal.
Of course, if he didn't have access to that gun he may have just used his explosives as well or just found another powerful gun. It's hard to say how access to one particular weapon would affect what would occur.
This guy was 24 - I doubt whatever mental illnesses he's like to have started just this year. I think it would be better if our schools were better equipped to detect and deal with people who have mental illnesses so we can head this kind of thing off entirely.
