guns

Honestly, I think it's mostly fear. There are practical reasons to own a gun and be familiar with its use and maintenance, but there are people who have varying levels of fear of weapons on a spectrum from simple discomfort to full on hoplophobia. The same people seem to be generally uncomfortable with being responsible for their own safety, and prefer to live in areas where government agencies are at hand to deal with any kinds of emergencies they may have.

It's the "don't do this, get an adult" mentality extending into adulthood. Once you're an adult, the next level of authority to shunt personal responsibility onto is the government.

Besides shootings? You’re kidding right? That’s like asking “why don’t people like cancer? (Except for the chemo and death part)”

With a knife (or other manual weapon) you have to be trained, lucky or prepared to kill even a single person, with a gun any person can shoot a whole school. It's too much power for some people. Plus you add range to weapons, making it even more deadly and unpredictable (collateral damage, crossfire, etc).

If you set those cons against the pros of "it's fun to sometimes target practice" then it's clear the better option is to ban them, like most countries do. Most people aren't against the actual mechanical contraption known as guns, they're against the fear a shooting can happen to them, their loved ones, or other innocents.

And in terms of protecting yourself from people who do have guns: guess what, in countries where guns are banned 99% of the bad guys also don't have them.

In no particular order...

1. Many men are total pussies and would never consider self defense to the point of killing someone something they would do.
2. Somewhat contradictally, people don't trust themselves with a gun, so therefore, they don't trust others with guns.
3. Feminism. Feminism raises mothering to a societal level. Women want everyone to be protected and safe via the a motherly govt overlord. Women intrinsically desire equal outcome. That requires communism. So any means to achieve that. Like authoritarianism.
4. The rise of Marxism and authoritarianism. Many people want to be told what to do. That only works on a broad scale if the people who refuse are unarmed.
5. Ignorance. Cognitive dissonance. Narcissism. Lack of critical thinking skills. Inability to set feelings aside and consider things logically.
6. Brainwashing. There's about 3 generations that have grown up with commie public schools telling them guns are bad. I've converted quite a few democrats from gun fear to fun by just taking them shooting and covering the $40 worth of ammo they use up.