A large percentage of people who are antis (at least 80% in my opinion) are ignorant.
Your average anti-gunner is a suburban or urban person who has never even seen a gun close up, or ever handled one. Most of these people, because they've never had any experience with guns, the only exposure they get to them is in movies, TV and through the news media.
Also, realize that most writers for TV and movies, as well as reporters are as ignorant about guns as the people they are writing for. Seeing a pattern?
Not having any first hand experience with guns, and seeing them portrayed negatively by other ignorant folks, of course people get a negative stereotype about guns. Hearing the subconcious "Guns are tools used by bad people" message.
Imagine, for a moment. You've never held a gun. You've never seen a gun in real life. You then read quotes like this:
The Brady Campaign's Greatest hits wrote: * The Brady Law, however, does not apply to the sale of firearms by non-licensees. Every year, there are thousands of gun sales without background checks by vendors claiming not to need a federal license because they are merely selling from their "personal collection" of guns.[2] Many of these sales take place at gun shows and the problem has become known as the "gun show loophole."
* Do You Feel Safer Sitting Next to Someone Carrying a Gun?
* Many people say no to that question, and for good reason. Most people who have permits to carry concealed weapons - people who are not law enforcement officers - have limited training and undergo less testing than even a novice police recruit. Yet they are led to believe that, given a dangerous situation, they will use deadly force with the same care and consideration that police officers will. Once a bullet leaves a gun, who is to say that it will stop only a criminal?
* Does a Gun in the Home Make You Safer?
No. Despite claims by the National Rifle Association (NRA) that you need a gun in your home to protect yourself and your family, public health research demonstrates that the person most likely to shoot you or a family member with a gun already has the keys to your house. Simply put: guns kept in the home for self-protection are more often used to kill somebody you know than to kill in self-defense
Wow, that's scary! If I've never had any experience with guns, reading this would put me off my feed! (In fact, it DID when I was younger.)
It's a purely emotional argument, meant to affect people with no experiences to the contrary.