Too late for that, best we can hope for is to make it nigh to impossible for whackos to get them, although they still seem to get them - illegally.
As far as the stories go, they may well be true. I found links to a couple news stories, and if I was a gun shop owner, I wouldn't have sold a gun to the guys in both of the links. But of course, in order not to do that, I would have had to profile people and have listened to cries of discrimination.
Interesting facts from a LEO that I know:
Any person exhibiting any two of the three following traits or behaviours may result in gun (two of those three factors points to a possible future mass, serial, or spree killer) or other violence later in life. Although not entirely definitive, the traits point to patterns of abuse which may make the one abused more prone to violent behaviour.
Bed-wetting after the age of five.
Arson
Animal cruelty
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) covering the 12 months to the end of September last year showed 699,800 recorded incidents of violence against the person compared with 604,100 offences in the previous 12 months.
The data also showed a new record level of rapes recorded by police in England and Wales.
There were 24,043 rapes in recorded crime figures for the year, a rise of 31 per cent on the previous 12 months and 81 per cent higher than a decade earlier.
The figure beat the 22,000 figures recorded in the previous quarter's data and suggests that continuing confidence in police and the courts is leading growing numbers of rape victims to come forward.
Sounds like people, in general, are just more violent today. Why?
Maybe it's because, as you allude to in your post, more crime is getting reported. We could be just as violent as we've ever been, but more people have more faith in the prosecution and support systems, so feel they can speak out.
The statistics are only as good as the figures they're based on.
Course, it could all be violent movies and video games. Let's just blame Doom and have done with it. :C
That's not my reason for asking, or caring really. I'm just curious about your reason for wanting to own. Hunting, target shooting etc seems fair enough.
I was more curious if you were to use "safety" as your reason. I know Ken feels the need to own guns from a safety POV. I suppose the safety comes down to your local area, neighbourhood, crime rates etc.
I played Doom a lot years ago. Do you mean to say that I am about to go out and shoot up a Christmas tree lot or a knitting party? Ye Gods and little fishes! 8-O
I don't believe you would ever use your guns to fight your government
From what I have seen, most USians seem to be trained from an early age to do exactly what any Police officer tells them, I cannot imagine you refusing to comply - and even more so should we talking about State or Federal level Officers.