Lately I find myself asking how I would feel if I were in a public place and someone walked in with an AR-15 slung over his/her shoulder. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't feel safer!
Here's a quick high-level perspective of my two cents on the issue. The glorification of gun ownership (e.g. posing with guns and rifles in political ads and family photos for holiday cards, deciding to concealed carry in one's daily life, etc.) subconsciously teaches that the use of guns is an acceptable solution for dealing with conflict of all types in our society. Anyone ever hear the expression that "what you do speaks so loudly, I cannot hear what you say"? (Great wisdom for parents...  )
Unless and until we collectively find the courage to set a different example and break the pattern, the rate of occurrence of these types of incidents will continue to accelerate. The multiplication effect that has been underway for some time is reaching a point where its growth is obvious and it will be very difficult to turn around. But the longer we wait to take action, the more difficult it will be. 
[BTW, the same concept applies to many other things in life, including investments, losing weight, etc. For more understanding, two terrific books on the concept are: "The Compound Effect", by Darren Hardy and "The Slight Edge", by Jeff Olson, which I can't recommend highly enough, especially the last one. FWIW, I don't believe either mentions guns.]
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