I was just hoping to jump in and give my experience / view on guns in America(not arguing just giving my experience and hoping to give a what I consider non extreme view to someone on the outside).
First I would like to say that gun violence and the M'Guns attitude really gets blown way out of proportion from how it actually is. Yes the United States has a gun issue that I don't have an answer to. We also have an issue where people end up resorting to violence that I also don't have an answer to. Full disclosure I am a 22 year old female and I carry a handgun lawfully with me when I leave the house (with lots of training and respect for firearms) but I'm trying to be as unbiased as possible while sharing my experience.
The reason I carry a handgun with me because on rare occasions I have been around people that I honestly feel are unsafe and would not be able to protect myself from them without a gun. Does this happen a lot no not at all but I also do not live in a horrible neighborhood where most of the gun crime comes from in the first place. I also do everything within my power to not be in those situations and IF I do find myself in that situation I make sure to remove myself.
I am not trying to be some hero that carries a gun to be a vigilante unfortunately there have been some people that I have met that fit that tough guy stereotype but honestly 95% of the other gun owners I have come in contact with while receiving gun training and at the range are very responsible and would never go looking for trouble.
A lot of what I see on reddit and also this thread is everyone is saying they wouldn't do something like take this robbers keys in America because they were afraid of being shot. I am being 100% honest right now I have only seen a handful of civilians in my life open carrying a gun where I could see it in everyday life lawfully but it is kinda unnerving because it's really not as common as people make it seem. Anyone else besides police carrying guns around me I haven't known about it(which if done legally is good). I am the only one of my friends or family besides my grandfather who owns guns. I am not in the worried that the average person or even a lowly robber has a gun. Honestly the police seem a little more scary sometimes.
America is hugely political about guns for several obvious reasons but I will explain how I feel and think about it. People are afraid of having their guns taken away from them because honestly criminals aren't going to give theirs up too. This goes back earlier to our violence problem, people want to be able to defend themselves and honestly the can of worms has been opened on guns being everywhere. Meaning if all of the sudden all guns were required to be turned in well everyone but criminals would not have guns. This causes people to get really defensive and knee jerk reactionary. I personally think it's kinda scary that I could have something that I carry with me everyday taken away from me that in the worst possible scenario could at least give me a fighting chance to save my life.
ehh that was a lot longer than I was expecting it to be sorry. It's actually my first post about guns because I try my best not to get into the politics of it. I hope this gave you some insight on how I think and I think other Americans think too.