But guns aren't about entertainment. Or, at least not to a large portion of the population. Even among gun owners, many own out of a sense of fear, not because they enjoy visiting the range or plinking cans.

I think you're previous comment really sums it up. The risk/reward analysis just doesn't make sense to many people. To the extreme anti-gun population, the only possible outcome of owning a gun is somebody dies. And that is almost never warranted.

In many cases, it's the classic "This is why we can't have nice things." A few bad apples don't store their guns properly, causing some deaths, and it doesn't take long for the general population to shift towards an anti-gun stance.