I'm not sure I agree with the general consensus in this thread, as much as I would like to.
I've come to realize that every society needs strong governmental control to function well. Before you all get too excited, I mean either internal or external government. By internal I mean within each person: conscience, morals, whatever it is inside you that tells you to do right instead of wrong no matter who is watching. By external of course I mean a strong government/police presence coming down hard on lawbreakers, sending them to Siberia or whatever.
I believe that earlier in the history of our nation, the whole idea was to have weak external government because most of the population had a much stronger internal government. Freedom doesn't mean you just do what you feel like whenever you want. That's anarchy, and it's not good.
A truly free people have some decency and self control. They know you don't rob, rape, and steal because it's wrong. They know substance abuse, prostitution, etc. is wrong because of what it does to your mind, body, family, and society as a whole.
They also know that if you own a gun you need to be responsible with it, learn how to use it and store it properly, because it's the right thing to do, not because big brother tells you to. Way too many people nowdays wait for big brother to tell them what to do, instead of knowing right from wrong on their own. Take away big brother and they just go nuts.
Like most here, I believe that ideally the only gun laws should concern the misuse, not ownership, of firearms. In the real world in our nation today, I suspect we have deteriorated past that. Certain parts of the country would be little affected by the sudden repeal of all gun laws, whereas for others it would be disasterous.
P.S. I suppose I'll be flamed for "moralism", but I think that would just illustrate my point.