It seems so simple... in the UK, most "ordinary citizens" don't WANT guns....so why would they here? I suggest there are many historical, demographic and cultural explanations as to why this situation developed, but understanding the complexities gets you only so far.
We can 'understand' how & why tobacco got such a foothold in the world, but getting people to reduce or stop using it is another matter.

What we have now is a gun culture where many treat firearms as 'just part of daily life'....then, with huge metropolitan areas in several parts of the country and a rise in crime (you have serious urban crime in the UK also) guns were touted as item for "defending ones family"

We have also had many millions of men with military service who spent years being taught that guns were a way to uphold goodness and punish the bad.

A few years ago, I read an interview with a young kid from the inner city of Wash. DC who said (paraphrased) "It's just too much trouble to settle scores by fighting...etc. With a gun, you just find the guy and blow him away!" This says a LOT about the general regard for human life and the hopelessness of poverty...but it is what it is. And of course, it says a lot about the *business* of selling guns...to anyone with the money to buy them.

So many causes... so few easy solutions...