What makes guns such a hot topic is that the day to day utility of them has greatly diminished. Many are also not exposed to them except in negative circumstance, like hearing about them used in violence. It used to be that many used them to harvest game on a regular basis, to the point where they could stare without guns. The vast majority of rural homes had a firearm in it. Many didn't have a way to call the police. They had to depend on themselves for security. The utility firearms has gone by the wayside with our prosperity as a country. We also have the illusion that if you call the police on your cell phone, they will instantly show up. We don't do subsistence hunting like was commonly done just a generation back. So the apparent utility of having guns around feels like it has gone away. So unlike a car, which is needed for transportation, many only see the liability of having guns around.
We also have a gun culture in the US. All 'free' men had arms in the US. The areas were gun control used to be was on the poor, minorities or in very limited urban areas. So many in the US equate having arms or the right to with freedom. So it is ingrained in many.
There has always been violence in any society. Even without guns, violence still occurs. Look at China, which has very strict gun restrictions. They have problems with knife attacks where similar number of people are killed or injured as in the 'mass shooting' in the US.
With the number of guns in civilian hands in the US, guns are here to stay. You can't even get rid of them if you wanted to. They can be easily manufactured or smuggled into the US, even if you were able to get rid of the hundreds of millions that are already in circulation. If having guns really was so dangerous, with the hundreds of millions of guns in the US, hundreds would be killed daily. The figures on gun deaths in the US include many suicides (I believe well over half), which should not be categorized the same somebody murdered in a robbery. In fact, the FBI released a study that show more Americans are killed by blunt trauma (from bats, fist, clubs, etc.). So guns are not nearly the evil thing many see it as. While there are very dangerous areas in the US, like Chicago, the vast majority of the US is extremely safe. I truly believe that gun violence get undue attention by the media as it is an easy story to cover. It sounds scary and many peoples immediate reaction is to say get rid of guns. Particularly when it is 'mass shootings' at schools & work places. It is unnerving to think you can get killed at work by a random stranger or even a known co-worker. The real gun violence problems area, like in Chicago's poor areas, is virtually ignored by the vast majority of the US and the rest of the world. Mainly because it is gang or drug related and many feel they 'deserve it'. If we really wanted to get rid of much of the gun violence in the US, we would address the poverty problem in the inner cities of our large urban centers.
So to answer the OP question, it is a long complex answer. Everything from it is a symbol of freedom to a way of life to a self-protection tool. Usually a combo of all. I believe free men have the right to possess arms. With freedom comes the burden that bad people will do bad things. But that does not remove the right of free men to continue on living free.
