1still_waters made an astute statement. He's exactly right. Along with gun ownership; however, comes real responsibility. My generation was trained in the use of firearms in manifold ways. Get this, our schools used to train us to use them responsibly. You heard that right. We had gun safety courses in high school in the old days.
Scouting organizations also trained young people with respect to gun safety and issued badges for the successful completion of gun safety courses.
Of course, two parent nuclear families with traditional values and morals were the norm when I was a kid and our fathers taught us gun safety and most of my generation had firearms in high school.
I would argue that building strong families and teaching gun safety are two activities that government can engage in to bring desirable results in our society.
Unfortunately, government appears to have little interest in accomplishing those two objectives instead promoting sexual immorality and exercising government authoritarianism.