Connecticut has an "assault weapons" ban similar to the federal ban that expired in 2004. It didn't prevent this atrocity.

The "assault weapons" ban, if written like the one in 1994, will outlaw scary looking guns, but the "assault weapons" will still be legal if they are modified.

They are not "weapons of war." True military hardware has been banned for generations. It has been illegal to own fully automatic weapons since, I think, 1934.

Finally, the number of people killed by rifles is low in comparison to the number of people killed by other means, including handguns. This is a solution looking for a problem.