Strange things, those guns... A couple of observations:

The recent war here (Croatia) has left us with a lot of ex-soldiers in possession of light weapons (in spite of that being illegal and numerous half-successful attempts at collecting it). The result is a sharp rise in number of domestic violence incidents, neighborhood disputes and bar brawls ending in shots or hand grenade detonations. (The fact that many of former soldiers - not only them, of course - are without job does not help, either.) Hand grenade is also 'favourite' weapon among posttraumatic stress sindrome victims attempting suicide. Interestingly, this 'trophy' weaponry is almost never used in roberies and similar crimes (still quite rare here).

OTOH, in Switzerland (a country with 150 years of peace and relatively low crime rate) most reservists (say, 20% or so of population) keep their light weapons at home. However, it does not get used for back-yard targeting practice, dispute setling or shooting at an occasional trespassing bum. Kids don't bring it to school, either. It is just safely locked away untill the next military exercise. That fact does not seem to hurt their democracy (nor the fact that Bobbies are not armed hurt British).

It's pitty there is not a reservation where NRA types, radical libertarians and right-wing anarchists could test their political theories in practice (left-wing anarchists would need a separate reservation). I think that many survivors would come out reformed...