Maybe it's unfair to call all gun lovers paranoid, but I don't know if it's entirely "naive." The truth is, there are a lot of loudmouthed nutjobs who claim to represent gun owners. Maybe you're not one of them. I have lived in Conway, AR for the past four years, where loving guns is kind of part of the culture. At first, I found it really distasteful. It seemed to me that loving guns was loving death or injury. I realize now that this concept is flawed, of course, but even now that I've been somewhat immersed, I still find this cavalier, 'no-criminal-ain't-gon'-git-me-afore-I-git-him-first' attitude to be a little disturbing when I come across it.

Hunters and sport shooters are completely inoffensive to me. They don't bother me one bit. Those people typically are taught to shoot at a very young age. They're the most responsible gun owners imaginable. My boyfriend is one of them. But the people who go on and on about guns being for "self-defense" are a different breed, and they tend to get really into how deadly their weapons are, and they do sometimes seem to be a little paranoid. Yes, there is anecdotal evidence that having a gun for self-defense can stop crime from happening to you, if you're exceedingly well-trained and calm and smart. But when it turns into a pissing contest - when it's more about how lethal your weapon is and you're buying silencers online or laser scopes, and your gun collection is full of guns solely made for killing people, it's just kind of sick, I find. No, maybe you're not a serial killer and no, maybe you'll never hurt somebody, but I still feel uncomfortable around you because you're just too into it. It feels like having weapons made for killing other people should be treated with more quiet reverence, but that's just my opinion and I wouldn't say anybody should make laws based on it.

I don't care for guns, personally. I have no desire to own one and take no real pleasure out of shooting them at a shooting range. That doesn't mean I think other people shouldn't be able to. But the right to bear arms was never really about shooting deer or skeet or even about stopping a rapist from manhandling your wife in an alley, it was about having the right to form a militia and fight against your own government if it ever returned to the tyrannical ways of the evil British government, etc etc etc. At least, that is the understanding I have after speaking with numerous gun collectors, historians, and political scientists who like to go shoot gallons of milk on the farm. To those folks, guns are to be highly respected, but not glorified. I feel much safer around those people than I do around people who get riled up about their right to defend their property. Not because I think you're going to shoot me, but because I think you're just a little crazy. It's just an opinion.