SeaToSki There are studies that indicate it’s closer to 400 million and that less than half of households have firearms. The real figure is unknown as is the figure of those who own them for the simple reason there is NO central agency where they have to be registered or indeed any requirement in law to register as a gun owner. None.
That to me is a glaring issue: we don’t know how many there are and we don’t know who has them or where. So, yeah, OP, I’d say that aspect of gun law is really fucking, outrageously unreasonable.
We own firearms, DH grew up on a farm with a hunting family, he was also in the military. He’s very passionate about his second amendment rights. He also believes all gun owners should be properly trained and licensed just as car drivers are, background checks should absolutely required and, in certain circumstances, licenses (and firearms) should be denied to people. From his POV he’s not a danger to himself or others, he’s always had guns, he’s expert in handling and firing them and it’s part of the culture he was brought up in. However to me that’s not a sufficiently good reason to have so many firearms so freely available and at large in the wider community in the hands of people who don’t have his experience and training. I’d happily have no guns at all, anywhere even if it meant him losing his.
He thought it important for me to be able to safely handle and shoot firearms because we have them in the house so I went on a gun safety course. I enjoyed the course, I learned a lot, I enjoy shooting at the ranges we go to, it’s a lot of fun. DH also has a concealed carry permit because he goes hunting with his family but that’s the only time he would carry a firearm outside of our home or a firing range.
Even if we didn’t shoot for sport or hunting in DH’s case, DH would probably still insist we have at least one firearm in the house, this is because he believes anyone who is likely to break into our home is also likely to be carrying a gun. I have mixed feelings about this.
He insists I should be able to defend myself but, even in fear for my life I doubt I could ever point a gun at another human being. In fear for a loved one’s life, maybe, but it’s not that simple. Gun safety 101 teaches you never to point a gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot. Even if I could work up the intent to shoot a living person, I doubt my capability, while in a state of probable panic, to be able to aim and fire my gun accurately. Frankly, I’d be a bloody liability if I had a gun in a crowded mass shooter situation, someone innocent would very likely get injured or killed if it were up to me to take out the attacker.
Like I say, I am conflicted, there are no one size fits all answers here, many states are working towards ever increasingly restrictive gun laws and that’s good. But there is massive pushback from the NRA and many gunowners and they have immense lobbying power in Washington so I sincerely doubt we’ll ever see an Australia type withdrawal in my lifetime.