If it were up to the public, there would be a great deal of chaos in our laws. Whenever something happens someone doesn't like, the knee-jerk reaction is, "there oughta be a law!"
The founders knew this. That's why this stuff is handled by representatives we elect.
Ballot initiatives and referendums can bypass that process to some extent, which is why we need to keep our eyes out for them.
With those anti-gun comments you mentioned, remember a lot of online posts are made by "sock puppets", "meat puppets, and "bots" instead of real individual people. Many governments use this tactic to spread propaganda supporting their agenda and the U.S. is no exception.
Here's an experiment you can try; The next time you read an online article and find that the responses are heavily slanted to one side when your common sense tells you it should be the other way, start clicking on the user ID's of those "people". I bet you find that many of those profiles have no pictures or information and little or no posting history, almost as if they weren't real people at all.
