My personal opinion is this:
I voted for the second option down in the poll. I believe our firearms laws could be relaxed a notch, but not to the extent of the US 2nd amendment. However, this does not deter from the fact that if I ever moved to the US, I would be 100% behind the 2nd amendment. It's a constitutional right, and being a traditionalist, I understand and support wholeheartedly the law-abiding American citizens' right to bear arms. This is what America was founded on. However, to introduce lax American-style laws to Britain is obviously not the answer. What I do think though is that it should be easier to obtain rifles, shotguns and handguns here.
I think the whole gun control issue is hijacked in America by both sides. Speaking as an outsider, I may well be ignorant to certain facts, but as far as I see it, you have the democrat "let's ban all guns" zealots, and the NRA militants who want every single person walking around with an AR-15. Ok maybe an exaggeration with the latter but it can come across that way.
What I do think we need to put into perspective though is this:
A lot of Brits and non-Americans jump on the anti-gun bandwagon and don't know what they're talking about when it comes to the whole US gun homicides issue.
Let's be clear:
1. A lot of the US school massacres and other public place mass shootings have taken place in gun-controlled areas; just saying. There was no one there with a concealed firearm to at least attempt to neutralise the perpetrator.
2. US gun homicides are far higher than anywhere in Europe, per 100,000 population, however no where near anywhere in the third world where guns are illegal.
3. The most important point: Most US gun homicides are committed with illegal firearms in Democratic-controlled areas with enforced gun-control, such as cities like Chicago, Baltimore and so on. It just so happens that these spiraling gang-related shootouts are committed by poor, African-American gangs involved in the drugs-trade. I am not trying to put a racial-spin on this, but I am highlighting an unfortunate truth. The media in Britain and the US promotes the work of a group called "BlackLivesMatter" persistently, but fails to look at both sides of the argument. I am going off on a slightly irrelevant tangent here, but the BLM movement are total hypocrites. They're protesting to suit their narrative. Which is bash whitey bash police ban guns.....
Fact: There have been several alarming cases of US police brutality on seemingly-innocent African-Americans.
However, it is hypocritical of the BLM movement and far-left activists to jump on this bandwagon when they repeatedly ignore the long-term plight of disadvantaged African-Americans in Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore, St Louis and so on, where black-on-black gun crime is extremely high. This is a hypocrisy.
Why is it a major issue to demonstrate when a white cop shoots a black citizen (sometimes criminal) dead, yet constantly sweep the more important issue of black-on-black gun homicide under the carpet. This is staggering hypocrisy, and it reveals the agenda of BlackLivesMatter. What they are saying is that it only matters when a black person is shot dead by a White policeman. Why forget the thousands more young black men being shot dead by other black men?
So the US may have a "gun problem," but from the research I've done, it isn't like law-abiding citizens are responsible for the majority of these gun murders, it is the inner city gangs in gun-controlled areas with illegal firearms.