We do not have a monopoly on mentally ill or emotionally unstable people.
We do have a monopoly on sensationalist media.
We do not have a monopoly on violent video games, violent movies, or violent lyrics to songs. Other first world countries have these.
But we are a country with a homicide/assault death rate several times higher than other First World, Civilized countries.
We are exceptional for only one thing. We are 5% of the worlds population and we possess over 50% of the firearms. There are nearly as many guns in our nation as there are people.
We should make it our aim to reduce the total number of guns in our society to per capita levels similar to other OECD countries through a voluntary buy-back of firearms at 1.5-4 times the market value of the weapon with non-cash vouchers.