Over here in Texas, all you need is a federal background check and you can buy a gun.  My dad owned some, I've fired them before.  I have perhaps twice in my entire lifetime heard gunfire outside of the firing range, and I don't live in a very wealthy part of the state either; I have no idea what the context of the shots were.  Most people I know own guns, and use them solely for home defense.  Some conceal carry, that requires an extra permit.  My little brother and sister were once held at gunpoint while an obese black man robbed them of their game consoles and games; IIRC the gun wasn't even loaded, and it was performed by a nearby neighbor, so...dead simple to file charges, but paradoxically not so easy to get one's things back.  I don't think they ever got their stuff back.  Naturally the people too incompetent to do that job, are the same ones expected to regulate our guns.  But that was back when we had no guns, and I doubt a couple of kids would be brave enough to use one (though I've seen some who are.)

True gun control--to completely bar guns from the nation, like China does--seems entirely unnecessary, expensive, not to mention a disarmed population can hardly defend itself against political pressure: just look how the Chinese are treated by their government, it ain't fun.  The gun is a very inexpensive way of gaining a whole lot of power over the decisions of life or death; I believe most people aren't criminals, at least not the kind who will kill, and I think those people who don't feel confident with guns will neglect to purchase them; plenty of other things in this world you could put 500$+ towards.  Those who do buy the guns are, more often than not, going to be normal people with no ill intent, who may think guns are cool, and who would certainly rather have one in the event of a criminal act against them than without; some try to claim that the police will suffice but the police aren't going to be able to make split-second decisions while it takes them 15 minutes or more to arrive at your location.

There is a sense of powerlessness when you are without a gun, where you play the odds that, more than likely, your day is going to be just fine, and there will be no incidents at all--this is by far the most common situation for most--but there's always the possibility that things will go wrong, and maybe not against you, but against someone around you, and you'll wish you could do something to stop it from happening but you can't; it doesn't have to be that way, however.

More importantly, however, is the general perception by criminals of the area they are in.  When the to-be criminal knows they will most likely be outnumbered in firepower--or even just run the risk of being shot as an unarmed individual--they will tend to turn away from such activity: everyone considers whether or not a certain action is worth the risk, whether the odds of you getting away with something are in your favor, whether the negative impact of the behavior is outweighed by the gain.  If you know you'll get a gun pointed at you by pulling a knife or gun on a clerk at the corner store, you're probably not going to try it; even the average criminal has a sense of value over his own life.  As the saying goes, an armed society is a polite society.

The major issues I see with gun control:
A. There's always someone who thinks there's not enough gun control
B. There's never fewer regulations
C. Who gets to say who gets the guns

Once there are increased controls on the sale of guns--on top of the controls already in place, don't let anyone tell you Americans have no gun control--there will inevitably be more.  Compromise always shifts us left.  Further, I don't trust the government to always be partial on who should have guns and who shouldn't; it wasn't that long ago the IRS was found to be targeting people of very particular ideological standing points.  Who's to say those who oversee the distribution of gun sales will not bar people on similar grounds?  Consider this line of thought: "Liberals/Conservatives are crazy, therefor unfit to have a gun; liberalism/conservatism is a mental disease."  Surely you see this all the time, depending on where you regularly frequent on the internet.  It's a dangerous game, as is every other time we've given up a little bit of our own governing power to the state; we always think they'll do the better job and then complain when they perform far worse.  But surely this time...

You know, I wonder if feudalism would've happened had the peasants had swords.