C. Heartfield,
Although I am a presently gunless American, I am an American and therefore abandon any claims of being rational about the infernal implements. I have always thought that the anti-gun dogma of the American left was a little misguided. I think it is impossible to totally disarm a populace and therefore misguided to try and do so. Although the Second Amendment to our Constitution has the stink of brimstone and death on it, I have always taken uneasy comfort in the idea of the armed American with rifle on shoulder being able to propound the notion "Live Free or Die" and having the means to back it up - even if we seem to do more dying than living free.
Politically, the anti-gun argument as I see it boils down to the notion that whatever political movement will predominate will require the support of a very large majority of the population and it will have to represent ideals that people can enforce and express through massive non-violent protests. It's a convincing argument. If the goal is a peaceful society, it is probably misguided to believe there is a way to achieve it through the massive internal violence implicitly anticipated by gun-rights advocates. Clearly we should be sharpening our plowshares rather than our swords. However, it takes time to drum up massive support for anything and in that time an unarmed populace can suffer badly.
It's an open question as to whether they suffer even worse from an over-armed society. There is also the point that the populace will always lose an arms race with the power structure. Bloodshed caused by under-armed people is tragic because they lose battle and their battles tend to provoke tyrants and alienate those who take up arms from more peaceful elements. This can undermine change and prolonging tyranny. I think this dynamic has been very active in South America.
On the other hand, do people want to be in the position of throwing rocks at people who have guns if protests turn ugly? Guns in the hands of citizens may be a deterrent to tyrannical excess in the face of protest. Guns and inner city riots in America have been net negatives for those cities but probably got people to the civil rights table faster than they would have gotten otherwise.
peace