In my opinion guns are a vital part of the American way of life. People who lived and died by the gun developed America. If Americans weren't armed, what would have happened when the British came to take control? The people who fought for the independence of America weren't psychotic violent people, they were just average people who farmed, hunted, and raised kids.
This event in history is a perfect example of the vital role that guns play in society. Many of the people attempting to control guns today are under the impression that guns are the roots of all that is evil when in fact, in responsible hands, they are just the opposite. If a woman were being raped, it would probably be a responsible person with a gun that came to her aid. If someone broke into a house to bring harm to a family it would probably be a gun in a responsible hand that saved the day. The term responsible hand is referring to the hand of an experienced and responsible gun owner.
Another issue is the complete banning of guns. Some people might think that if guns were to be banned then no one would have them. This is partially true in that no one would have them except for criminals. Banning guns would only remove them from the hand of the responsible gun owners and leave criminals to take advantage of the unarmed citizens. After all, what good would making guns illegal be for to reducing crime? It would do more harm than good; criminals don't care if they're breaking the law by owning a gun. If they had respect for the law, they wouldn't be criminals and we wouldn't have anything to worry about.
History will tell that banning doesn't solve anything. One can get a good idea of what would happen if guns were banned by looking at other things that have been banned in the past. One example is prohibition in the 1920's. The government rid alcoholic beverages and all it did was make criminals rich by selling it over a black market. Another example is the ban of drugs; they're illegal, but any teenager will tell you that they can get drugs very easily. All that banning does is obliterate all the regulations and laws of distribution that controlled the product to begin with and hand it over to the criminals.