Here is my take on this... I live in Oklahoma, was born and raised on a farm and having a gun around has always just been a thing.. You needed it all the time for one thing or another with critters of one sort or another. We always had guns around for protection because the local law was 20 minutes out and people are people and that hasn't changed since the beginning of time. What I think has happened is there are still folks like myself that still live in rural America and it's just the way of life. Go to the Urban areas where most folks have never even seen or held a gun and they can't relate. Now let's throw in some Glorification of guns from video games and movies and people start to romanticize about guns and the power. This in my opinion along with the decline in the value of life gives us gun violence and delusional belief in what power is.
People are disconnected and the new truth is what you see in movies and read on the Internet (Accurate information vs Perspective), add in some hyperbole and media spin and people start to get all bent out of shape over the wrong things and start to make decisions using the influence of bad information and emotion.
Do I have guns, yep (err I did before I lost them)... Has my perspective changed at all, nope.. We still use them around the property and we still have them to protect us in the event that someone comes to my house to do my family harm.