It's only my opinion, but if you bring a weapon to a crime your sentence should automatically go up by at least 5 years, no parole for it. If you use a weapon during a crime, add 10 years. If someone dies during a crime you committed while in possession of a weapon, such possession should be prima facie evidence of planned intent and you go up for murder one (if you didn't intend to use it, why did you bring it?). And I specifically use the word "weapon" and not "gun".

The media must also take some blame for glorifying weapons as ends in themselves and not as the tools they are. Perhaps if the US (and other countries) taught children that firearms are tools for grownups and not toys for children (and grownups were required to learn about them)...well, consider Switzerland....