You keep spouting this faux scientific concept that people are "apex predators" and predatory nature of human kind. Yet this is not the distinguishing characteristic of humanity. From your false premise, you go on and on about how weapons "make us civilized" and survival of the fittest as if life in the US is some sort of urban jungle where to live until the next day is a victory over evil doers and other humans who want to take your life.
While it's a fun fantasy to imagine us as some form of Kzin you completely miss what science and physical and social anthropology actually tell us about ourselves. The most successful species on this planet have one thing in common, a social gene for cooperation and the willingness to sacrifice for the group. This genetic predisposition for cooperation has been studied extensively in honey bees but is also present in the most successful animals on the planet, ants. Behavioral science-based mathematical models for behavior have shown quite clearly that animals who live cooperatively in communities that will rally to defend the community at the cost of individual lives are much more successful than analogous animals with the same abilities but do not cooperate. What other successful animals have this gene? Quite a few, but one of them are human.
I'm not going to argue your philosophy, which is based on some lone wolf model of behavior because it is based upon a false premise. The reality is that people do best when they cooperate with each other while having the freedom to act independently. And, actually, wolves don't survive well outside of a pack. When we cannot trust our neighbor, whether it be due to a form of threat or simply because they don't live by the same social mores as others, our ability to perform the two contradictory functions of cooperation and independence breaks down.
And so, your argument about guns as a civilizing force is ridiculous. Threatening people or performing acts that cause fear only drive people into tighter knit and smaller groups. These groups may act against others out of fear, whether imagined or real. Civilized societies that successfully operate on large scales have well understood rules of behavior where people know what to expect from each other in specific situations. They also don't kill each other out of fear. People cooperate to produce more than they can by themselves. Cooperative behavior is fundamental to pre-industrial agriculture, which is the true foundation of civilization, not the gun.
Whether we own guns or not, therefore is not relevant to civilization. Removing guns in a fragmented and fraught social situation won't make us more civilized, nor will seeding society with enough firepower to slaughter all members many times over. Removing fear and it's causes are the answers. Such as eliminate food and shelter insecurity. Remove barriers to social mobility -- let those with the most ability rise up and provide those with less ability a safety net where their dignity and security are maintained.
The reality is that, as outlined in the link below, the US and the people of world on the whole are living in some of the safest and most peaceful times in history. It feels otherwise but that's just fake fear. So again, your perceived need to arm yourself in preparation for battle with other apex predators -- this testosterone driven rhetoric is too funny to me -- is due to cowardice and fearfulness.
"forsooth" LOL, who uses that word in everyday conversation? How funny
The World Is Not Falling Apart
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/12/the_world_is_not_falling_apart_the_trend_lines_reveal_an_increasingly_peaceful.html
