I have a niece that is married to a state trooper. The inference I got was that officers were not writing as many tickets to African Americans as the potential hassle wasn't worth it. Why take the risk at being called racist.

I believe that most people are purposefully misconstruing Kirk's positions. I also believe that a few gun deaths might be acceptable vs. the notion of no gun ownership. The risks to society are, in my opinion, higher if the population is fully unarmed. This is even more true for a country that has no way of pulling back all the guns out there. Outlawing them now will definitely have little effect on criminals.
Imagine, though, how the acceptability of dangerous things is much higher for other things. How many lives would be saved with no alcohol, no smoking, no sugar drinks, cars that were mandated to have speed regulators, no motorcycles, or a number of other things that are allowed by not necessary.
It is stated that around 178000 people died from alcohol use per year and more than 480,000 from tobacco. And this is from legal uses. The gun deaths are generally from suicide or illegal actions.