I still do a double-take when I see the
police with guns.
Though it triggered (NPI!) me more when on the continent (e.g. when I lived in Berlin) and saw normal-looking officers on the U/S-Bahn with hip-holsters, just checking for the Schwarzrad, than when I'm in one or other major shopping area these days and there's a couple of kitted-up guys[1] wandering the area.
I don't know if it's time (we've had the likes of 7/7, in the years since I was so much abroad) or the thought that it's "These guys are special!" (and also "Don't stare, don't stare!"... then "Don't look like you're deliberately not staring!"[2]) that meant I can tolerate the idea of speeding projectiles being just a few small tweaks of fingers away or something.
On the American issue, there was an interview broadcast (over here, for the benefit of us Brits) with some guy in a shopping area parking lot in the town of the school that had just suffered the tragedy. He explained that the two guns in his car were "because of the border issues", although I don't think it was the Mexican Army he was talking about. And I don't know how much Southern Border gun smuggling goes on (possibly more goes outwards?), but it's probably people (of whatever origin) locally armed and out to commit home invasions/carjackings for... whatever gang-related reason those furriners get involved in.
The problem is that there are a lot of guns out there because people know there are a lot of guns out there. The demand for guns isn't going to go away while there's others with guns, and those people (legitimately or otherwise) will want to have guns because the people that
they might be in conflict with like to have guns. And the reason for that is...
No, there's no real good way of dealing with the reinforced feedback-loop. You don't have Superman able to persuasively gather up everyone's weapons in a big bundle and hurl them into the Sun, in one fell-swoop. Which is not to say that I think it's not worth worrying about, the whole messed up gun-culture, just that I know what it's like to
not see any reason to arm myself, and then hear about your average suburban couple who don't "collect" guns, but happen to have 80-odd of the things "for home protection"[3][4].
And while the UK (except NI, but ironically like Eire itself!) is an 'unarmed police' country[5], like Norway, Iceland and New Zealand, all but these and a further 14 nations seem to have habitually-armed cops and yet for some reason this does not deter criminals. (Or suicides.)
...though it's just one of those things presented, I haven't checked what figures it uses (I wonder who is at 0.6ish deaths and 9ish guns?) it just passed across my view recently, in another context.
[1] All kinds of kit on their vests, i.e. cuffs, asp, spray(s), secondary radios, which many patrol officers might have. But with some sort of glockish thing holstered as well as an obvious taser. And, most visibly, toting calmly but carefully some H&Kish weapon.
[2] Then "So, right, what on earth do I do to not look like I'm carefully trying to not look like I'm trying to avoid attention, so that I don't... Oh, they've gone. Where have they gone? No! Don't go and find them again! Just go and get that print cartridge/whatever, that was the only reason you came here..."
[3] Probably just hidden all over the place, in case of need, like in Mr And Mrs Smith. I mean, once you have more than two guns in your hand, your markspetsonship and trigger-control is going to suffed.
[4] Though the average seems to be only 1.2 guns per person, so in a three-child family home the
true average is 6 guns, enough for Poppa to go Guns Akimbo while Momma, Mary-Ellen, little Bobby and baby Jake get just the one each, when the Zombie Apocalypse finally happens. Meanwhile, the UK has 1 gun registered for every 30 people (surprising, I'd have added another order of magnitude, at a guess, but if that's including shotguns on farms, etc...) and an estimated additional illicit gun for every 60 of us (ditto, but that still means a total gun-density ~4% that of the US).
[5] Barring specialists, that is. Who have been asked/forced/mistaken to kill only a
single figure of people they confront, in each of all the years I can find data on (with around 5,000 armed officers undertaking 15-20k active operations per year), and in some years
none at all...