Completely agree, and this is why I’m ultimately in favor of repealing the Second Amendment, although I know that’s not a realistic goal any time in the near future. It’s not because I hate guns or want to ban guns or have a problem with responsible law-abiding people using guns. It’s because during the last few decades the gun industry and the conservative movement have built up a really toxic “gun-rights culture” in the US, where millions of people erroneously believe that the mere fact of owning or carrying a gun makes them some kind of patriotic hero fundamentally defending the rights and safety of their fellow-countrymen by their very existence.
This is delusional. Private gun ownership, even widespread private gun ownership, isn’t doing anything in reality to prevent government tyranny in these days of modern armies and law enforcement. But the people who believe that it does are understandably very resistant to any proposed measure that restricts their gun ownership rights in any way at all. (And of course, it’s also a very useful belief in that it rationalizes maximizing the gun owner’s own convenience and enjoyment while dismissing any negative consequences for other people.)
I don’t think we’re really going to significantly change that culture without uprooting this outdated and heavily fetishized constitutional enshrinement of a right to gun ownership. I know that for a couple hundred years the US managed to balance our interpretation of Second Amendment rights with common-sense approaches to limiting the risks of firearms, but I think that horse has left the barn.
I don’t think the gun industry is ever going to be satisfied again with anything less than uncompromising allegiance to the principle of unrestricted gun rights, let the chips (and corpses) fall where they may. That culture will not really change until the constitutional status of gun ownership as an inalienable right changes.