I wonder if the different attitude to carrying guns is mainly
cultural.

US citizens with their history of the war of independence and the
reliance on minutemen and a citizen army with often their own weapons
have a different attitude than say, New Zealanders whose police do not
carry guns. They can carry a baton and had a special trouser pocket
for doing so but most did not wish to be encumbered by its weight.
N.Z. has a law that compels any citizen to come to the aid of a
policeman if he calls for help or if he is being attacked. The penalty
for not doing so is a possible prison term.

We used ex WW2 .303 calibre rifles as kids for shooting pigs, deer and
goats in our bush/forests which are classed as pests and it was
relatively easy to get a licence for a rifle once you turned 16 but
definitely not for handguns or automatics.

Just a thought - not