There is a huge controversy raging throughout the land currently on the subject of the right of Americans to own firearms. The current crop of ‘Progressives’ believe that the only people that should possess firearms are the police and military. The current crop of ‘Conservatives’ believe that the world would be a better place if everyone owned a firearm, except maybe for those silly Progressives.
Hidden motivations and assumptions of all of these private citizens, politicians and (big G) Government makes for a swamp full of very stupid positions on the subject, swimming about like brain damaged alligators.
Most non-psychopathic Americans do not want our world to be filled with the corpses of bullet-riddled persons. Most of us realize that there is an inherent trade-off of our liberty and freedom for a higher degree of security. It is disheartening to observe how easily people will throw away their independence and freedom for an illusion of security. For that is what it truly is, an illusion.