I've already had this argument today on facebook so I will repost my reason as to why I support the legality of firearms:
The main purpose of government is to protect its peoples' natural rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When it ceases to do so it must be overthrown for one that will.
An armed populace has a much easier time at doing this than one which is not. I do not believe the U.S. government needs to be overthrown as it does do a reasonable job of this at the moment. However every government will at some point deteriorate into something that does not. When the time comes I want there to be firearms ready.
I am for the most part a pacifist, but when it comes to protecting one's natural rights I concede the use of arms.
Maybe you really have to be grown up outside of the USA to realize, how unbelievably ridiculous that sounds to foreign ears.
I agree, though, that the USA have entered a downward spiral of violence, where the only solution to protect yourself from people with guns, is having your own gun. That's why there are 200,000,000 guns in private ownership in the USA. In words: Two hundred million. And that is only the official number. I'm sure the number of unknown, illegally owned weapons is even higher. Does anybody seriously believe it takes 200 million weapons for Americans to be able to defend themselves against their own government?
That number alone is also making complete nonsense of any already existing regulation or restriction people usually refer to, when more gun control is discussed (again).
By the logic of the weapons industry - that only arming yourself protects you from other armed people - the next logical step would be:
"Well, let's give guns to school children, so they can defend themselves against an amok runner". Ridiculous.
And no, I don't think that banning firearms from private property is the solution to everything. Besides, I would really like to see the result of policemen trying to take away firearms from rednecks...
But there is one undeniable truth: An amok run is much more difficult, when you only have a knife or a baseball bat.
And I tell you another truth: More guns don't mean more safety. More guns only lead to more people being shot. In fact, each year much more people are being shot inside the USA, than US soldiers are being shot abroad in countries like Afghanistan or Iraq.
Which means, it's probably not more dangerous to serve in the army abroad, than living as a school teacher in an American suburb...