Seven Points for a Sane Discussion of Gun Ownership.

Gunsmoke's Marshal Dillon--almost a semi-automatic revolver

1. European culture was strongly influenced by feudalism. The feudal lord determined what crops you planted in which fields, and at what time, in exchange for promised security against hostile invaders. 
2. In the New World, the individual was considered his own lord—an aristocracy of one. Thus, individuals had every right to own their own unregulated weapon. The private ownership of weapons was instrumental in overthrowing British rule. This reality ingrained into the American heart a resistance toward any governmental interference of gun ownership.
3. There are 300 million guns in America. Voluntary surrender of weapons is impractical and the attempt to confiscate them by force would be disastrous. One might reflect on the history of prohibition for instruction.
4. Gun control legislation reduces the ability of law abiding citizens to protect themselves, while emboldening the lawless.
5. Senseless violence such as school massacres is a largely post-modern phenomenon. In prior generations, even pre-teenagers would spend mornings out hunting before going to school, without any such violence. Gun ownership is not the problem.
6. Confiscation of weapons and the repeal of the 2nd Amendment surrenders the right to effective self-defense. 
7. There is a certain irony in the notion that weapons in the hands of some people (i.e., police, government officials, bank security personnel, air marshals and pilots) is a good idea, but weapons owned for personal self-defense is bad. The notion reflects a European feudalism rather than a New World frontier mentality. If there is justification for the elite's access to weapons, surely there is a similar justification for gun ownership for all law-abiding citizens.