The other riddle is licensing and other forms of oversight for gun ownership or possession.
We mandate licensing for driving a car or other vehicles and there are age restrictions on when one can legally drive. It was 16 when I grew up in PA, but other states have varying rules.
We also mandate that one cannot legally drink until a certain age, 21 is pretty common across the country, but some states have varying rules.
We mandate documentation for flying on planes, operating boats and for activities such as fishing or hunting.
Yet, gun ownership, and possession is even looser, is a completely convoluted process full of loopholes like gun shows, private dealers, street purchases and ghost guns. There are age restrictions for handgun purchase in most states, 18 or 21 are the most common, but some states do not have similar restrictions for long guns or rifle purchases or possession.
I live in NH and 18 is the restriction for handgun purchases, but there are no restrictions for purchase of long guns or possession of handguns or long guns.
The leading trend for gun violence is suicide. Over 195,000 Americans have died by gun suicide since 2010 according to Giffords. If we had that many deaths doing something else but using guns, legislation would have been passed long ago to address the problem. Instead, not only is there a strong resistance to any sensible legislation to regulate guns or enforce gun ownership & possession limits, there is also a strong push to loosen existing gun laws and allow greater availability to guns and who can own & carry them.
Until all of us stand up, demand our representatives to act and vote in people who will to replace those who will not, this issue will continue to grow.