One guy seemed like he was joking the other seemed like he genuinely didn't know.

And the other side just wants to not worry about their kids getting shot in school. Fuck them right? Do you not get that you are just the other side of the coin? Over simplifying and vilifying the other side without ever actually even attempting to see where they might be coming from. You aren't trying to engage in real conversations, debates, or anything else any more than the side you are whining about. I mean lets even just examine your comment. You went into a topic about a mass shooting in order to do what? To correct some technically of the style of gun used? Wow, that's great. So if someone came up to you and said "my child was murdered by an assault rife" would your first instinct would be to correct them that it's not in fact an assault rifle? You aren't remotely interested in engaging in good faith on this topic. You want your gotcha moment. So ultimately you shouldn't even be mad at being banned. You can sit in here or other similar subs enjoying the echo chamber, just like the people you are complaining about.

Reddit does not pay any mods.

While mods def go out of control on certain subs regarding certain topics, right wing subs are far and away the most unabashedly censored. Subs like /r/conservative won't even let you post without being essentially approved by the mods first.

You know you are currently on reddit, freely posting your opinion, right?

The mute is for the sub, the mods they can message after 3 days.