In US, carrying a gun is a birthright, much like freedom of speech, because their founding fathers thought that if ever the federal govt were to move towards autocracy, armed citizens should be able to overthrow the govt and defend their freedom.
This was 18th century.
Now US looks more like a police state, with the highest incarceration rates in the world with overflowing prisons. US also has one of the rigid sentencing guidelines( more like rules), like black kids who stole a TV would serve 5 yrs in prison.
So, their citizens anyway spend so much money on the police and to have their criminals locked up, so why do they need guns now ? Only pseudo macho old white men with heart problems (Cheney) seem to love them, by using them on just released quails or pheasants or some other animal in captivity , which they don't get it right often.
The problem is the powerful gun and arms lobby. Its a profitable business, of selling sure death . Gun is such a blunt killing instrument, it needs no skill to use, and doesn't even offer the victim even a slightest chance to defend . Even this 33 deaths may not be enough to turn the opinion for gun control.
