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Originally Posted by SkepticX
How so? Self-defense is a pretty fundamental right--it's quite arguable the contrary is unnatural. Is it specifically the gun that's at issue for you?
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No, any tool made, kept and used specifically to kill or maim another human is the problem. But the bigger problem is the social atmosphere that nurtures the idea that other people are out to hurt you. The media is certainly not helping the situation.
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It's not just attitudes, it's the fact that it's not difficult at all for violent criminals to access them. That's why so many feel the need to be prepared to defend themselves against lethal weaponry.
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The fact that so many people have a gun makes it necessary for criminals to also have them, causing and worsening the tail spin. It wasn't that many decades ago that street gangs routinely fought using fists or knives. An arms race has changed that, and the situation is very similar when it comes to run-of-the-mill criminals vs. victims. Criminals are not going anywhere, they merely adapt to their environment. Guns are relatively rarely used in crimes in my country, despite an alarming proliferation of them, as gun permits are never issued for defence against humans and there is no permissible carry. There is a confidence that there will be no people playing hero to protect mere things, therefore no need to make the crime more severely punishable and the likelihood of being caught grater by committing a crime when armed. A would-be victim may arm himself to hope to avoid becoming a victim, but in reality the first step for criminals when victims are likely armed is to arm themselves, the next is to shoot first and rob a corpse.
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Also, guns provide weaker, less tactically viable people with a means to defend themselves that other weapons don't.
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Again, this may make the individual feel safer in the short run, but is ultimately making everyone, also him, less safe in the long run due to the arms race and the air of fearmongering. The US is (and has been for some time now) heading down a path where justice and maintaining a peaceful society is not centralized any more, but in the hands of individuals. There is a long history of alarming distrust in police and military compared to other Western cultures (possibly originally rooted in the glorification of a rebellion that the country was founded on and then ballooned and warped from there), and is at least seemingly worse in the past few years, though that could just be due to vocal fringe elements.