Unfortunately people are always seeking simplistic solutions to their fears, and students that are terrified of being in the next school shooting have grabbed onto the concept of banning guns as some type of magic answer that is quick, easy and will not inconvenience them personally. Trying to explain that such laws would do little to reduce the availability of firearms to someone intent on mass murder just makes them uneasy. They WANT to believe that another law will work when all the previous laws have failed. They also don't want the inconveniences of having only clear plastic backpacks, of having armed security at the schools, let alone metal detectors and pat downs every time they enter the school. And of course, as most of us here understand, they are being manipulated by others for a larger political agenda. The Left sees this issue as one that could give them control of Congress in November and so any and all aid to these "marches" is being given, with the goal of getting out the anti-Republican vote.
It would be heartening, and very valuable politically, if we on the pro-2A side could generate the kind of crowds that the anti-gun side has been able to do. But in truth, it seems the average American is apathetic on this issue, with only a small minority that would even take the time to show up for a local pro-gun "march". When you consider that the NRA is generally seen as the most effective organization on the side of the pro-2A argument, and that the anti-2A side has portrayed the NRA as the ultimate evil, and yet only 5 million of the estimated 100 million gun owners are actual NRA members. If the average gun owner was not so apathetic and lazy, maybe we would have 20 or 30 or 40 million members and then we would not even need a "march" to more fully get the attention of politicians and voters alike.
Part of our problem on this issue is that we do not claim to have a simple and clear solution to violence in our society, let alone the specific violence of a deranged or alienated individual who chooses to go out in a blaze of violence by shooting up a school. Our solutions of teaching basic gun safety to all children, of having better means of identifying the mentally ill in an attempt to deny them access to firearms, to spend the money to harder the schools as potential targets just doesn't have the simplicity of saying that if we just ban the scary looking rifles we will be safe. Of course we understand that if all AR style rifles were banned, and even if all such were confiscated, school violence would continue. Then the anti-2A side would demand further bans and more draconian laws in their never ending but failing hope to outlaw evil and violence. Just look at the UK. Guns of all types are virtually prohibited to everyone, yet violence continues. Now there are knife restrictions, and I'm sure that some in the U.K. are trying to devise rules that would make it harder to buy acid since acid attacks are on the rise. Even the concept of self defense is essentially an illegal act in the U.K. and yet they are still not safe. A rational people would say that all of this is not working, so maybe we need to empower people to defend themselves and to have the means of such defense legally, but people, whether in the U.K. or here, are not rational, they are emotion driven.
I don't know what the solution is. My own discussions with some of my grandchildren who have been part of these anti gun "marches" seems to fall on deaf ears, since the media and their school leaders are telling them that they are on the right path with their demands for gun control. Maybe the best we can do is to try to get fellow gun owners, and any citizens that value the rights enumerated in our Constitution to vote for candidates that will support the 2nd Amendment.