Well my final take on the topic is that there are those who feel firearm proliferation is linked to violent crime. Either through the ease of killing with such weapons or the general availability of them.
Then there are those who feel the right to keep and bare arms is of more importance than the possible reduction of firearms for the sake of hopefully reducing violent crime and accidents. This is a common deep seated American view.
Then yet another camp who takes a pragmatic view that anything that is a cause of grief in a society should be done away with.
So whats the answer? Well I really believe you can not un-invent the wheel so to speak. Pandoras box has been opened. Guns in America are prolific and available to most anyone who wishes to obtain one. I am a gun owner. Am I part of the problem? Perhaps, since the fact that I possess fire arms that could be used to do bad things is always a possibility. But it has been my experience that many gun owners own them for a myriad of reasons. To some they are objects of art, to collect. To others they are objects to customize and tinker with. Some folks like to go out and shoot them for fun. Some folks have a Freudian complex and have guns to compensate for a tiny pecker. On and on the reasons for gun ownership is as varied as the types of guns themselves.
I find guns amazing things, but I know they are a scourge of mankind as well. As long as people are irresponsible, criminal, violent there will be gun related deaths. And every gun owner must come to terms with his desire to own one knowing the horror this invention has brought upon our species. Stan Lee's quote comes to mind,
"With great power comes great responsibility."
"You were not there for the beginning. You will not be there for the end. Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative" William S. Burroughs