I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this idea over the years, and I truly think that with the stats of having more guns than people in a country like the USA, the average person ought to have more faith in humanity since gun violence is not nearly as much as you’d think.
The vast majority of Americans have never even witnessed a gun fired in public. Which is crazy if you think like a European might: "If everybody had guns then bad people would just shoot other people all the time". There is nothing in ordinary American life hinting that guns are dangerous. You have to look at statistics in order to form some kind of an idea that there is a problem.
The fact that there are so few incidents, relatively speaking, speaks volumes for the decency of the people, how responsible they are with their guns.
I like to draw an analogy to the Nordic countries where we have "the freedom to roam". Anyone can roam around on public (and even private) land and put up their tent for the night, pick berries etc. This causes very little problems, because people learn from a young age to behave responsibly in nature.
But then you have (too) many countries in Europe where wild camping is illegal. That means there's no culture around it. And the thought is that if they now made it legal it would just exacerbate the problems they have now, like people throwing trash in nature, causing wildfires etc. Yes, in the short term it probably would, because you just neutered people's ability to display responsible behavior by not letting them create a culture around it. If people are raised with that responsibility it tends to not become a problem during adulthood.
That's why I support gun rights in practically every country. Teach people from a young age to be responsible with guns and let that flourish in adult life. Trust people. Don't punish everyone for a few bad eggs.
