Frazzled: Your right to cower under your table at a restaurant when some Jihadist walks in with an AK and you can do NOTHING, doesn't impede upon my right to whip out my .45 ACP 1911 (AKA: phallic symbol), blow away the terrorist asshole, and save your hide.
When has that happened? Strange that for all the guns already floating around, it rarely happens compared to "man runs amok and shoots strangers dead". You are living in a fantasy world. Go back to your XBox and leave real-life to the grown-ups.
The first action of a dictatorship or oppressive society, is to disarm the population and imprison the intellectuals. No thanks! I'll be keeping my Right to Bear Arms. You can cower in fear. You, and others holier than thou attitudes and intellectual snobbery mean ZILCH to criminals, thugs, and terrorists bent on having their way
So you surely must object to Trump then? Funny how so many of the gun-loving Republican party don't.
Ask the (surviving) Jews how being disarmed by the Nazis worked out? Ask the Israelis if they are going to throw down arms? How about the peace-loving Swiss? Every Swiss Citizen serves a stint in the military, and also has a sidearm in their home. When is the last time anyone messed with that country?
Switzerland was neutral in the war. They were the nazis bankers. It was nothing to do with having a few guns.
The problem of gun mentality is identical in the psychology to vaccinations. In every other country people voluntarily get their kids vaccinated because they know it is the best option. Sure, the best option for any one person is that they don't and everyone else does ... but sensible people know that everyone thinking that will result in no vaccinations and lots of unnecessary deaths so as a society people get vaccinations and they work. Unarguable facts back this up and are not accepted by the self-focused Americans who just want to deny the truth.
With guns it's the same (but reversed) - the best option is that you have a gun and no one else does. But anyone with sense knows there is no way that will happen and there is no way to prevent people who shouldn't have guns getting them if they are freely available. The best solution for all is for no one to have them (equivalent to everyone getting vaccinated). Again, the facts are irrefutable and only debated by people who don't want to accept the simple reality.
Just admit it - you have been fed a diet of fear and paranoia all your life and you are afraid and having a gun makes you feel safer. Don't try and tell us you are going to save anyone from terrorists - you'll be in the corner pissing your pants with all the other gun owners.
Imagine the french train with more guns. That would not have had as good an outcome.