In fact, feel free to replace "assault rifles" with "anything."

That first sentence is far more clever than it sounds.

The word is "ersatz." An ersatz good is one used as a substitute when a particular good becomes unavailable. It's often used in the context of inferior substitutes, but historically there are many examples of ersatz goods becoming better than the original. Synthetic rubber used as an ersatz good to replace unavailable natural rubber during WWII is an example of this.

Right now, certain people of lower intelligence are proudly parading their ignorance around screeching about how "assault" (semi-automatic) rifles must be banned in order to prevent damaged children from engaging in the mass-killing of other children in public schools.

Let's take a brief moment from snickering at their "dumb pride" parades and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Imagine, for instance, that you could wave a magic wand and instantly eliminate all semi-automatic rifles from existence. Poof, gone, nobody can do anything about it. Does this stop mass-killings in public schools? Of course not. Easily-available ersatz goods, "handguns," still exist. In fact, kids will discover that handguns are more affordable, more concealable, easier to handle, and, with hollow-point or frangible ammunition, more deadly than so-called "assault" rifles.

Congratulations, your magic wand just made mass-killings in public schools even worse.

Imagine, for instance, you could then wave your magic wand again and eliminate all guns from the world. Rifles, handguns, flintlocks, 3D-printed ghost guns (remember, we're talking magic, not reality), all of them. Poof, gone, nobody can do anything about it. Does this stop mass-killings in public schools? Of course not. Easily-available ersatz goods, "explosives," still exist. All kinds of explosives are easy to make. In fact, it is virtually impossible to remove the necessary ingredients from society to prevent them from being manufactured at home. Explosives can be concealed and attached to timers, meaning that a killer can often use them to kill far more people than they could with an "assault" rifle or handgun, and are far more likely to get away with it.

Congratulations, your magic wand just made mass-killings in public schools even worse.

Imagine, for instance, you could then wave your magic wand again and eliminate all explosives from the world. Construction, mining, military, home-made, all of them. Poof, gone, nobody can do anything about it. Does this stop mass-killings in public schools? Of course not. Easily-available erstaz goods, "poisons," still exist. All kinds of poisons are easy to make. In fact, you can easily buy many of them with cash at retail establishments with nobody batting an eye. Add a couple of hundred grams of acetaminophen (Tylenol) into the Gatorade cooler on the sidelines of a football game and see what happens. Or into the school lunches. Poisons are easy to sneak into all kind of things undetected, and take time – sometimes even days – to do their deadly work, making them an even better way to murder dozens or hundreds without being caught.

Congratulations, your magic wand just made mass-killings in public schools even worse.

None of this addresses the real problem: public schools are designed to break children and mold them into minions of progressivism as prescribed and proscribed by academics. Public schools are how academics create each new generation of cultists to worship them, and this has been the case for over a century.

The real problem is that when you break children, some of them will break in ways that are dangerous and deadly to others. You cannot protect public schools, institutions that exist for the sole purpose of breaking children, from damaged caused by broken children. This should be obvious, but to allow it to be discussed might make the world notice that they are breaking children. So they get mad at "assault" rifles instead.

Even most conservatives and libertarians get this wrong. At the core, this is not a gun rights issue. This is a breaking children issue. Gun rights should still be defended, of course. But keep focus on the fact that this is really about academia's self-proclaimed "right" to break children and re-mold them as they see fit. Abolishing guns solves nothing here. Abolishing public schools solves everything here. This is where the focus must be re-directed. There is no substitute for this course of action. And you now understand why the first sentence is more clever than it sounds.