Yeah, I was thinking of renting "Deadwood", but haven't gotten around to it yet.

The social problem in the USA regarding guns is twofold in this respect:

1. Idolization of guns and gun-toting heroes in the popular culture, and that goes way back...

2. Idolization of the armed forces! I can think of no other society on Earth at this time except perhaps North Korea which is so besotted with and fascinated by the power of its own military, and which makes such constant appeals in its media to unquestioning support of "our boys in uniform". In this respect, the USA reminds me of the fascist powers of WWII whose societies were marked by an extraordinary preoccupation with their military forces and their advanced weaponry which had been turned, in effect, into objects of public worship. This has been the case in the USA ever since the end of WWII and right up to the present era. It is also pretty standard for American politicians to run for high office on the basis of past military service, and generals or war heroes have frequently been elected president. I've never heard of a Canadian prime minister who used his past military credentials to get elected. We elect civilians in Canada, not ex-military heroes. That tells you the difference in national psychology in a nutshell.

Fascism has always been marked by extreme worship of the military and extreme appeals to patriotism to override inconvenient things like common sense.