WHY, GUNS, WHY ???

A friend's recent facebook post made me think of something disturbing… Going back about fifteen years now… When I first moved to America. I remember pushing my cart around a supermarket in Tennessee with my Mum, when I was shocked to see an isle of guns and ammunition, right there between the isle of care bears, kids toys and kitchen equipment!!! And this wasn't just guns,it was rifles, shot guns, hand guns, knives, all sorts of weapons and ammunition, anything you could possibly want if you wanted to KILL something or someone… (why else would one want a weapon?) I have to say that I remember my Mum and I looking wide eyed at each other and wondering where the hell we had just moved to, and how quickly could we get the hell out of here? Quite obviously it seemed, we had just moved to a country of serious violence, where any Tom, Dick or Harry could just waltz into any supermarket, buy a hand gun over the counter without so much as a "by your leave"!!! then go out and shoot or kill whatever or whomever they chose… In England there are so many procedures, laws and requirements one has to go through to obtain a weapon, it is never as simple as a quick trip to your local supermarket! I can't help at this point reflecting upon the many horrific tragedies over the past fifteen years that have occurred in various states because of lunatics let loose with guns. How many innocent people have suffered the loss of a loved one through some maniac who went beserk with a killing machine that he probably bought in a supermarket. I truly don't understand the American obsession with guns, and this 'right to have a gun', why, WHY ? honestly?… Guns kill or maim, WHY should anyone have the right to own something that can do this??? Perhaps my understanding of this 'right to bear weapons' is alien to me because I'm British, thank God we are still a peaceful nation over there… Yes, I know that England has it's fair share of violence, but it's not like it is here in the States. Everything from America crawls across to the UK eventually, I just wish weapons weren't one of those things, but I know they will in time... It makes me very nervous...