The reason is because fewer guns helps solve the problem of gun violence and no guns completely solves the problem of gun violence, as not smoking cigarettes solves the problem of getting cancer from smoking cigarettes.
It's a good thing you don't live where I do. We have coyotes, deer, turkeys, jackrabbits, racoons, squirrels, possums, skunks, mountain lions and bobcats (albeit the last two are quite rare). We aren't allowed to shoot any of them in my town. Big story locally a few years back was a guy who shot a deer that was tearing up his roses and he ended up with a conviction and suspended jail time. How do I keep these pesky creatures away from my roses, my wife's herb and vegetable garden, and my little dog? We built a 6-foot fence surrounding our property. Doesn't help with the turkeys or the squirrels of course, and I have to keep an eye on places where some creatures might try to dig under it. But it keeps the coyotes and deer out, which is the most important.
It's odd that you say "the idea of voluntary self-sacrifice won't materialize either." Whose fault is that?
And I do know two people who voluntarily got rid of their guns when they had kids. And more who didn't. And some who bought guns WHEN they had kids. But fair enough.
Re: the car/horseback riding/etc. etc. comparisons — no other product is designed specifically and only to damage its target. Not a knife -- it has social benefit beyond its use as a weapon. Not a car -- it does too. As do horses. A gun achieves it social benefit only through harm, which is its specifically-designed use. Hence they should be the most heavily-regulated, -restricted and -taxed goods, carry the heaviest penalties for misuse, and carry the highest possible insurance premiums for wielder protection, if they aren't banned. But they aren't and never will be. Once again, it's largely gunowners and organizations they support who prevent that from happening here.
I do think you are probably overly dismissive of the correlation between number of guns (and I assume types of guns) and gun violence in the US relative to other nations. I would also assume ease of access is a huge reason. But, again, these issues exist because of the success of the gun lobby, which is of course, funded by gunowners and manufacturers. It's not logical for non-gunowners to allow gunowners to absolve themselves from blame on this front. Which brings us back full circle to the issue of demand for the product in the first place.
