to me the ideal situation would be for the US to be like the UK when it comes to gun laws. this is from wikipedia:
In the United Kingdom firearms are tightly controlled by law, and while there is opposition to existing legislation from shooting organisations[citation needed], there is little wider political debate, and public opinion favours stronger control. [1] The British Shooting Sports Council now believes that the law needs to be consolidated but it does not call for a review. [2] The United Kingdom has one of the lowest rates of gun homicides in the world with 0.07 recorded intentional homicides committed with a firearm per 100,000 inhabitants in 2009 compared to the United States' 3.0 and to Germany's 0.21.[3]
With the exception of Northern Ireland, most police officers in the United Kingdom are not required to carry firearms. [4][5] Despite police being unarmed, shooting fatalities of members of the police are extremely rare; there were three in England in Wales in the eleven-year period from 2000/01 to 2010/11. [6] About 7,000 police officers have received firearms training [5][7][7]. Standard police firearms include semi-automatic carbines, and pistols, such as the Heckler & Koch MP5SF, and Glock 17. [8]