My gun, my safety.

U.S. Constitution - Bill of Rights
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

The U.S. Constitution, as quoted above, is the watchword of individual freedom in the United States. We currently worry, and rightly so, about all the firearms used in robberies, and other criminal acts.
But, do we wonder at what would really happen if our duty to keep and use firearms should be abridged in the many ways some well-meaning legislators have sought?
For instance, no army general, no officeholder, would possibly think, even today, of attempting a coup, or otherwise usurping the government. Why? Because the millions of households that do have firearms, from hunting rifles to pistols and shotguns, would be an impossible force to overcome, even if hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers could be convinced to shoot at their neighbors, and I don't think they could be so convinced.
The Founders envisioned a free society in which citizens having arms could be enlisted in a militia to defend the country and themselves as necessary. The Founders were considering at the time the certain possibility of attack from outsiders, and saw a future where they wanted to make it impossible for an errant government, even our own, to take over the country. If every citizen was armed and ready to fight, there was not much chance of any army being able to conquer ours. And we were the very best guerrilla fighters in the world at that time! Some might offer that we are no less a frontier country today, because the criminals have guns, and many of us don't. We should change the equation.
So besides contemporary worries about the criminal element, we really need to take our responsibility as Citizens seriously.
In that vein, I think every high school graduate should be required to take and pass a course in handling firearms. Upon passing and at graduation, part of the graduation would be a firearm license, allowing that person to obtain a hand gun and other arms as allowed, mainly being hunting and sport firearms, and shotguns and pistols for personal protection.
Yes, there would be jerks who did bad things, but no more than today. The upside is that many of the criminals who have firearms today would find less willing victims; potential victims who could and would shoot back, rapidly reducing the criminal population. Yes, there would be mistakes, yes there would be unintended deaths. But overall, there would be a rapid decrease in the criminal element. I cynically note the substantial cost savings in housing the prison population, although much of that is drug-based. ( More on drugs later).
So, let's take our Constitutional responsibilities as Citizens more seriously. Every household should have at least one person licensed to carry firearms for personal protection, and all those over eighteen should be trained in their safe use.
For those worried about our Privacy Rights, this might help; no government would attempt a coup if they were facing over 200 million armed resisters! For those worried about all those criminals with guns, how many armed robbers would be left after a year or so?
Answer: Not many.