They are a small part of the overall problem. I’m not really sure how much gun violence can be rolled back just by keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally unstable. But that wouldn’t hurt.

That would take some pretty stringent restrictions to really work though - we can’t just wish it into existence. Waiting periods, universal background checks, for all gun sales, no matter what. Maybe a licensing process like for operating vehicles. I think it would all have to include extremely involved psych screening, because diagnosing those things isn’t simple. Can’t just screen for a germ.

We don’t have the political will to do any of that. The gun culture in this country won’t allow any of it. Who’s to say which instances would be prevented? Was this guy in Buffalo insane, or just insanely bigoted and “rationally” concluded he needed to slaughter as many of those without white skin as possible? Same question with an Islamist extremist who follows divine orders to kill all the infidels.

What about all the random street violence, or domestic violence? Seems guns have become so ubiquitous that they are becoming the tool of choice in disputes, rather than raised voices or even just fists.

This would require one amazingly thorough mental illness screening process with a very broad definition of mental illness. Pretty sure it would be unprecedented in its scope.