Interesting and well thought out post. I would argue that ease of access to guns play a big factor in some of the peoples' immediate decisions. To simplify it(by a lot), think of a conflict between peers, if both of them are hotheads but none of them carry guns, the more probable outcome is that they fight it out with non lethal results most of the time(unless one of them has clearly murderous instincts of course, then he will grab ANY thing that can be used as a weapon to murder his peer.) If only one of them has guns, unless the other unarmed man has a death wish, he will probably chill and run. So we could safely assume that unless the unarmed man/men are clearly psychotic and determined to murder, having no guns makes it way harder for someone to make some mistake while in an ego power trip, and easier for the police(if they arrive on time) to control the situation, and it is also easier for the fight to have a non lethal outcome even if it turns violent.
I´m not utopic or delusional by a long shot, since I live in a violence ridden, multicultural country, which is Argentina, with big hatred and political divides that sometimes even end in death. However most acts of violence over here dont end in gun violence because there are a lot of regulations to purchase legal guns and even though any psychotic or delinquent can enter bad neighbourhoods and get overpriced and usually underperforming guns on the black market, overall the number of guns in the general population is very low. I´m convinced that if it were higher, there would be a lot more deaths. A lot of people filled with political rage(there is a big divide here) rant on about how they would kill someone on the opposition, and I believe some of them actually would make good on those threats if they were given legal and easy access to guns.
So you see, my own country´s violence is somewhat mitigated by the relative hard task that is to get a gun, legal or otherwise.
But Americans have another real problem that I can see from where I stand that Argentinians don´t: From what I read and hear, many americans feel they can´t trust their police to not being trigger happy, can´t trust their government to not abuse helpless citizens and feel they can´t trust their peers mental well being(on average). Let me clarify: of course there are always going to be a few nutjobs out there, but if you feel those nutjobs are inside your government, police, as well as in the streets, and they are everywhere, and you need to defend from them with deadly firepower, i´d say your main problem is not with guns, it´s a deep trust issue that lies in within your society and it is not even the result of a political divide.
I´d ask honestly then: how did you arrive at a society in which you feel that most people are threats to be protected from?
and then: what can you do to improve the general relations between peers?
My suggestions for the whole thing would be:
* NOT banning guns but strictly controlling them.(curiously, you will find the main obstacle to this is not the general people but the gun maker´s lobbying groups)
* Fighting(peacefully, ideologically) for a more transparent government and police.
* Promoting understanding, civility(the art of peaceful resolution of problems and arguments), and dare I say it love for your peers will pay off in the long run as a society.
* Encouraging(but NOT forcing) existing gun owners to peacefully give up their guns.
* Training police officers in peaceful resolution for conflicts. (Of course there are many real murderers/psychos out there that may eventually require deadly force, but if your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and if the police gets gun training but not enough negotiating and psychology training, well... you see the point)
Anyway, these are just my thoughts about the issues. Sorry if I offended anyone with my views, and keep in mind that I don´t even live in the USA, so I´m not intimately informed of the problematic, but that´s exactly why I think an outside opinion may be valuable.
I think you you stated your views very well. I think it's important for people to get outside opinions because we're often to close to the problems we're trying to solve and understand.