Banning guns in a culture that has had access to them in the past has no real effect on the homicide rate. Australia tried it and their homicide rate actually went UP. You have fewer of the sort of "newsworthy" massacres that show up on TV every now and then, but the overall rate isn't really affected.
However.
Speaking as someone who enjoys shooting and firearms in general, who the hell needs an SKS? Or any of the weapons they're talking about banning? They're not hunting weapons. They're not target weapons. They're weapons designed to KILL PEOPLE. Like every handgun in the world, but worse, since a handgun at least is reasonably practical for self defense. Assault rifles are large, unwieldy, fire ammunition that's got vastly more range and as such far more dangerous to put in the hands of the average redneck, and in general encourage people to fire in wild, uncontrolled spasms in the general direction of their targets.
If you can't hit it and kill it in 1 shot, you should either a.) learn to shoot, or b.) use a larger round. Or possibly both.
Frankly, I'm not overly thrilled with the way we tend to sell guns to anyone who wants to buy one in this country, since that tends to encourage the sort of idiocy that leads people to buy assault rifles in the first place.
