Let's get something straight. Every item (rifle, pistol, knife, hammer, bat, etc.) you use to attack someone with, is an "assault weapon." Period. The left deliberately began calling semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines, "assault weapons," to make them seem scarier than other weapons. They were NEVER referred to as assault weapons until the leftist Democrats coined them as this to get the public to agree to take them away from everybody, even though millions, upon millions of people who own these rifles aren't harming anyone.
Now, on to the increase in violent crime....in the leftist run cities. The reason for the increase in crime falls on the "soft-on-crime" prosecutors and judges that are being elected. The violent criminal, robs or shoots someone and the soft-on-crime prosecutor and/or judge, releases the douchebag on his own recognizance or on an ankle bracelet, only for him to get another "stolen" gun and commit other crimes. Then he/she gets caught again and is again let out after spending a night or two in jail. He/she then gets out and carjacks someone with an again stolen firearm (rifle, pistol). All the while, laughing at the ridiculous so-called justice system. The same douchebag racks up page after page after page of crimes, until such time as he/she actually kills people. What happens next can actually and does happen. The douchebag get bonded out until the trial, or by some miracle, they actually hold him/her until the trial.
If you want less deaths, once the douchebag commits his/her first deliberate crime using a firearm, declare him/her a danger to society and you keep him/her in jail until the trial. No more releasing on their own recognizance or bonding out until the results of the trial.
Bottom line. No more electing of so-called soft-on-crime prosecutors or judges.
On a somewhat separate issue: I just watched the case of an ex-con who murdered four of his family members. His reason: He couldn't find work and they weren't feeding him and since living on the "outside" was hard, he wanted to go back in the "box," and never come out again. These criminals need to learn to really hate being in prison, not miss it. Prison systems need to change and to hell with the "bleeding-hearts" who want the prisoners pampered.