My Take | Let's get graphic about effects of gunshot wounds in the United States

A colleague in my office has finally answered for me some eternal questions: Is the AK-47 a better rifle than the M4? And which one is a more effective kill in an office environment like ours?

While we both agree an AK rifle would do a better job, I am beginning to have serious doubts about my colleague who sits close by. Luckily for me, we are in Hong Kong where the government bans guns.

If we were in the US, my colleague would probably already own an AR-15, which is the civilian version of the M4, or a semi-automatic AK, as most states ban fully automatic ones. I would have reported our conversation immediately to management, perhaps even called the police and called in sick.

Here in Hong Kong, I was led to thinking about the tragic incident in an Idaho Walmart where a young mother was accidentally shot dead by her two-year-old son, using a handgun she was carrying in her handbag. The woman was a nuclear research scientist at a state-funded lab.

Unfortunately, tragedies like that won't change anything in the US. It appears as school shootings and domestic killings become more frequent or at least more widely reported, Americans become more worried - not about the killings but their constitutional right to bear arms.

According to a recent Pew survey, more Americans (52 per cent) today favour gun rights over gun control (46 per cent). Seven years ago, 60 per cent favoured gun control. I should know: my gun shares in Sturm, Ruger & Company shot through the roof after the December 2012 gun massacre of 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut.