We are drifting off-topic a bit but as we have and as I was involved in selling guns for five years in Australia, and as I mentioned earlier was with the Agents for Winchester Arms & Ammunition, plus others may I add a couple of points.
Firstly, just about anything can be a weapon from a cricket bat to a kitchen knife, but only a gun is designed with one purpose only, which is to release a small projectile at high speed towards a target. Much is made of the skill necessary to do that in such sports as Clay Pigeon shooting, Skeet and above all Olympic Trap, and that is totally valid. These are all versions of a sport that uses shotguns with mulitple projectiles over variable spans and relatively short range.
We then move to rifles which are a completely different animal as (theoretically) they were designed with the single projectile being delivered. In case anybody doesn't know 'rifle' takes the name from the internal twist scoring of the barrel which causes the bullet to spin and is more accurate. Again these are mostly seen in Target shooting, and again require a high degree of skill to use successfully.
Brian asks 'when did we lose the plot'? Well probably with Gatling and Hiram maxim who designed the weapons that delivered single projectiles in almost unlimited sequence with a single hold on the trigger. As such they required little or no skill to use, and rightfully became known as 'Automatic' weapons. The best-known and most widely used weapon in this field being the Kalashnikov AK47.
In the first two instances fair claim can be made for them as 'sporting' or even 'working' weapons (farmers etc). This cannot be said for automatic weapons, and there is no known or recognised sport that uses them.
These weapons have magazines that can deliver multiple bullets consecutively at high speed allowing for "spray'. There are semi-automatics that have smaller magazines holding generally about 9 bullets. They are still automatic though.
Most countries now ban the use of automatic weapons sales at retail and ditto with semi-automatics. All other weapons are required to be locked and stored when not in use, and usually with firing mechanisms dismantled.
OK that's true with one MAJOR exception which is the United States of America, where a probable misreading of the Constitution has the "'right to bear arms' of the citizenry. This was originally to cover the possibility of a dictatorship in a still primitive environment, but has been bastardised ever since.
America now has a folkloric heritage around the use of guns - from handguns through to military hardware. It is a strange corollary to me that in a country where religion plays such an (apparently) important place in daily life, the deadliest hardware is relatively easy to obtain and the average gunshop is like an arsenal, at least from what I have seen. Almost none of the weaponry on sale appears to be 'sporting'.
Coupled with religion is the rite of passage for young childen to be taken 'hunting' by their fathers. Putting it simply they are taught to kill living creatures from a very early age - and praised for doing it. It is no great step from killing creatures who can't fight back, to killing other people who also usually also can't fight back - note the proliferation of schools attacked.
The NRA (misnamed National Rifle Association) is dedicated to preserving this way of life and has seemingly vast numbers of members and supporters in the community. It is a vicious circle where more guns are in the hands of more people with the inevitable upsurge in gun crime just on percentages. People seem more threatened and so buy more guns for 'defence' and so it goes on. How this cycle can be broken is unknown, and I certainly don't have an answer, but banning the sale of automatic weapons would be a good start.
Finally on a totally emotive note. Put a gun in someone's hands and there is a sensation of power being transferred. This does NOT turn every gun-owner into a homicidal maniac, but again the more guns that are out there, the greater the possibilities become, especially with the sale of automatic weapons.
Ultimately as I said at the outset, and has been confirmed by the use of a car as a weapon, (NB the increase in this as used by Palestinians in Israel recently) anything can be used as a weapon, it remains once again down to the individual and his sense or lack of sense of responsibility.
Forgiving those who do not exercise this responsibility doesn't do a dam' thing tp resolve the problem.