I think it would be better to think of the idea in terms of power rather than in guns. But yes, unfortunately, the gun issue in the US is a huge problem that overwhelms the political discourse because of its obvious moral component. I think the proponents of the gun issue come from a distinctly Hobbesian line of thinking, that we always have to be mindful of the state of nature. This is why, I think, people in the rural areas are more predisposed to guns, while people from urban settings understand how dangerous and foolish that is. Again, I think the issue is more of a cultural, psychological thing given the propensity to think one way if one is in a vastly different human enviornment.
I come from a very urbanized setting. I've talked about my past a lot before, and if I were to divulge that again, I come mostly from highly urbanized contexts, so the gun issue for me, at least on an instinctive, natural level, is just to abolish it. However, not everyone has lived life in urban contexts (I come from the LA area, Seoul and Tokyo). If I were to have grown up in the vast rural context, let's say, of Montana (choosing this place is arbitrary), because of the vastness of the region, it's unlikely that if someone were to threaten my life, I would not be able to wait for the police to handle the situation. Like imagine a vast countryside where your next door neighbor is miles and miles away from you. The police wouldn't even have enough manpower to cover the breath of this region, because that would take so much resources. A state which does not have a urban context might also lack funding because of its size, and the relatively low population plus the sheer size of the region might make it unfeasible. Here, take away guns, you take away the ability for that person in that region to safeguard his or her own life, and their family, their entire way of life, really. Most of us are from urban contexts, so this kind of situation is not intuitive for us. If a balance of power is not established, life or society falls into disarray, and this line of thinking, I think at least, is basically what drives the whole gun issue.
I personally don't like guns that much. When I was in the army, we had to clean them meticulously, and it's always a b**** trying to clean the barrel because grease would never 100% be cleaned off. We'd always have to collect our shells too, because a missing shell means a missing bullet.
The two other countries which I lived that is unrelated to the gun issue have very strict gun laws, and given their balance of power in society, the density and urbanization of the countries, plus their relatively newer democratic histories, I think it makes sense that guns are restrictive. But in the case of the US, I'm much more hesitant because of its pluralistic nature and deeper historical heritages.
