Here are a few common sense facts. In this country, since it's inception most if not all, depending on year, owned firearms. In the beginning it was for protection, it enabled people to hunt and feed the family and protect ones' horse from being stolen. Horses of course were their transportation and for farming. Thus it was so important if you stole a horse and were captured you were hung.
I can tell you for a fact........I've lived through the 50's until now. It was never like this even though we all possessed firearms.
As for horse theft being a hanging offense, that was only true in certain cases out west. If you stole a horse out of a livery stable in a town, the owner wasn't put to risk. If you were out on the Staked Plains, however, being put afoot was much more serious.
And yeah, I grew up in the 60s/70s and we boys carried our shotguns and deer rifles to school in our cars during the fall. And it's true, we didn't have military grade weapons. Let me tell you what we also didn't have. We didn't have people telling us we didn't have to face the consequences for our actions. We didn't have 'kill 'em all' video games. We didn't have helicopter parents screaming at the school system when we broke the rules.
I grew up working on a farm, an hour before breakfast/school every day and all afternoon every day. When was older, at 14, I took a summer job off the farm and found my own employment through the rest of high school, heck, for the rest of my life. My parents taught me to work for the things I wanted and to respect other people. The end result is that, at 63, I've never committed a crime worse than speeding and I was able to retire three months shy of my 49th birthday. I was more mature at 16 than most of the thirty-odds I meet today.
Sorry. I didn't mean to rant.
My point is that when something 'horrible' happens to someone these days, from K-4 through adulthood, they've been taught that it's someone else's fault and that someone else should pay. As always, my opinion.