What if they had a positive impact? Would our founding fathers have wanted us to trade safety for loss of ability to defend our rights? No. They would have pursued a means of dealing with the problem that involved personal responsbility.
In other words, they wouldn't have trotted out expensive psychiatrists to help get perps off the hook. It would be an eye for an eye. Taking life would involve judicially forfeiting one's own.
A fundamental trait of our moral code as US citizens that has been lost by these zealots. I'm sure our Founding Fathers are looking down upon us, shaking their heads in despair.