@noyesa What county in MD? A fairly rural one? Or very affluent one? One where there is little crime and social problems in general? In those communities there is little gun violence whether everyne has on eor not, but that does not prove that people are the only problem and not the guns. Because if you go to a county where there is a lot of violence, if no one had a gun, the violence would probably drop drastically. Especially random shootings.
@all I think it is both problems at once, as many have suggested above, it is not mutually exclusive. This is the first time in my life I have lived in a place that I feel like most people own a gun, and violent crime is pretty bad not too far from me. No one I knew had a gun growing up, it was never part of any discussions, it simply never even occured to me to won a gun, and I grew up in the suburban NY and DC.
I understand the feeling of wanting a gun in case you meet up with someone who wants to hurt you who might be armed himself. Guns can be the great equalizer. I think we should have controlled guns better 30 years ago, get in front of the problem. Once there are guns everywhere all over town, then it is the norm to have a gun, and then everyone feels like they have to have a gun. Countries that have stricter gun control, or at minimum it simply is not customary to own a gun do have lower gun violence.