I believe you get the kind of society you deserve. If, apparently, the majority of the American population are happy for everyone to own a gun for their own protection (against whom - it depends who you ask it seems?) then all it takes is a tiny minority of that population with some warped mentality to cause mayhem. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing (Edmund Burke).

I had a cousin in Pennsylvania whose husband kept a rifle at home. A perfectly normal bloke, he used it for hunting but told me he was perfectly prepared to use it to defend his home. I remember visiting them just after the famous Tony Martin case (the guy in Norwich who shot two burglars in his house) and he was gobsmacked when I told him that this guy had been arrested and jailed for killing the burglar, something which he (cousin) would have done without hesitation!