Guns are power

Guns are power.
So are cars, lawnmowers, and microwave ovens.
One thing they all have in common is that all thse things can be used to accomplish good things, and they all can be mis-used to cause bad things.
Stories involving guns that turn out badly make the news. Stories that end well, generally do not.
That's not some evil conspiracy, it's just the nature of the news business. It's important that we recognize that, or else our view becomes biased by the preponderance of negative stories.
The debate over gun rights and ownership is not characterized by rationality and polite discourse. A primary cause of that is the professional advocacy groups that have sprung up or evolved to take advantage of people's worst aspects.
Promoting rationality is the last thing they want, because calm rational people don't send in as much money.
If you visit both pro- and anti- gun web sites, you'll see that if you switched a few words around, their verbiage is pretty much interchangeable.
Before you dismiss that as cynicism, check the salary structures at the various organizations.
Perhaps we should ignore the advocacy groups and just start talking to each other.
Politely.
The guys who wrote the Second amendment didn't do it just to cause no end of trouble two hundred years later. In the culture that existed then, having a gun was a necessity. They knew that.
It was not only food on the table, but protection for the individual and the community.
And don't overlook the fact that they also knew that an armed populace seems to get more respect from the ruling powers.
Rather than focusing on regulating guns, instead regulate behavior.
As an aside to the Luddites out there, let me alert you to the fact that the whole debate is about to be rendered moot in many aspects. That's because we are on the brink of an era where anyone can have the capability to manufacture their own gun at home, at a reasonable cost. If you were willing to spend what you would on a fancy car, you can do it today.
Computer controlled machine tools are available, and 3D printers are here and getting cheaper and better.
To get an idea of how it works, Google 'CNC guns'.
We live in interesting times.