Most of those guns will be sold for hunting - deer, pheasants, rabbits, geese, turkeys, ducks, even doves. America has many square miles of woods and forest, and hunting is big business.

As for the guns bought out of fear: if you saw some of the vicious, brainless random crimes we see here, you might be afraid too. Not that I think a gun will help much, but then I don't get my ideas about life from movies and TV.