Until folks really confront the reality that the extreme volume of guns in this country is tightly correlated with our extreme rates of mass shootings, these conversations will tend to go nowhere.
There are solid studies that show high correlation between mass shooting rates and per-capita gun ownership -- even if you exclude the United States! The U.S. just leaps off the chart in both categories.
Some bizarro numbers that paint a rather interesting picture of "our" sick, extreme obsession with guns:
- The US currently has about 4.4 percent of the global population, yet owns 42 percent of the world's guns (non-military). When you poke further, and realize that 32% of Americans own those guns, that means just about 1.4% of the world's population is holding 42% of the world's guns!
- Even more extreme, consider that the vast majority of gun owners only own one gun. Just 3% of the US population (or about .13% of the world's population) own half the guns in the U.S., or about 21% of all the guns in the world!
- In absolute numbers, that means that about 9.7 million Americans own a combined ~133 million guns.
- For that segment of 'heavy gun ownership' of the population (less than 1 in 30 people), that's an average of over 13 guns per person!
What the heck do those few people need ALL THOSE FREAKING GUNS FOR?

?
Are they planning to repel a commie invasion? Are they planning on forming a "militia" to take on the U.S. military in a coupe? Preparing for the zombie apocalypse? What?
This has gotten way past the insane point.
Do you know at least 30 people? Do you find it a little unnerving to realize that chances are that one of those 30 people might have an arsenal of 13+ guns? (Obviously, that's not evenly distributed geographically so the chances really vary from state to state).
When will the vast majority of the U.S. that actually _isn't_ obsessed with extreme hoarding of guns finally notice what is going on and stand up and say, "Enough!"?
Sadly, probably never, given our complete lack of response to Sandy Hook.
It's as if the vast majority, some ~314M Americans ,are held hostage, forced to accommodate the manic obsessions of those few.