Counterpoint - ish.
I can see how guns, being very cool all-senses enjoyment devices, can be addictive. I can also see how the self-defence aspects of weapon ownership can slip into the self-proving aspects of testosterone-soaked manchild fantasy. To whit, young $FILLY over there would see what a man I am if only the $OPFOR came over the hill and I could shoot every last man-jack of them. Then she'd love me. Etc.
I think Sonny's post about the handyman summed it up for me. Some people seem to put their gun collection first - and the rest of their lives a very distant second. To me, the ownership and competent usage of a firearm, at the strictly personal level, is about safeguarding what one makes of one's life.
To have a trade, at which I excell to the extent of my innate abilities, is why I'm wandering around metabolising in the first place. To use my mind, and my hands, to create new things, new wealth, and new opportunities is why I get out of bed in the morning. That is the primary goal of my life - do well, make money, have fun, and be as much of a well-rounded human being as I can be.
In time, I will bedeck myself with sufficient self-determination devices to ensure that nobody else can interfere with my process of self-exploration and self-enjoyment. After all, my work harms nobody, brings some people pleasure, and not a single one of the pennies I've made has been at someone else's unwilling expense. However, that's what those weapons will be - a means to safeguard what I've made already. I have no desire to wage war. I do not wish my fellow sacks of mostly-water ill. Frankly, the firearms which I will acquire will simply be there to prevent misguided people from doing me, or those I love, harm.
There's a very pertinent Tolkein quote, which our kind host on this forum has in pride of place on another site of his:
I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. (J.R.R.Tolkien, The Two Towers)
I think the people that Sonny's referring to could do with having that simple message explained to them.
Selah.