Pointing out the large number of automobile-related deaths in comparison to gun-related usually causes them to go into reset mode and start chanting mindless gun-grabber mantras. We are not dealing with rationality here.
"They seem to think that possession or and use of a car is a God-given right. When I patiently explain to them that it is a priviledge..."
Then you go on to state, ...and that gun ownership is a right affirmed by the US Constitution."
Substitute "enumeration" for "affirmed," and consider the following:
AMENDMENT IX
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
You also have a "right affirmed by the Constitution" to drive a privately owned automobile, as well.
Contrary to a common misuderstanding, driving a privately owned automobile, especially on public roads, is a right, retained by the people, that shall not be denied or disparaged because it is not "named" in the constitution.
The authors of the Constitution were extremely worried that future generations would limit "rights" to only those "enumerated" (named) in the Constitution.
Thus, they inserted the 9th amendment into the Bill of Rights.
Many authors of the Constitution thought that the Bill of Rights were redundant. That there was no need for the Bill of Rights because governments do not grant rights. The list of rights retained by the people is much too extensive to name all of them and no where in Article I through Article VI was the power granted to goverment to deny or disparage rights.
You have just made the exact error of declaring a right a privilege, just because it was not enumerated in the Constitution, that some of the authors of the Constitution had feared.
You have played right into the liberals favorite retort for denying and disparaging your rights, "compelling state interest," because you are willing to concede driving a privately owned automobile, on roads, financed by your taxes, as not a right.
It is too bad that the 9th amendment has been relegated to obscurity by the liberals and not resurrected by the conservatives.
I am hoping that since your are a member of this forum, Freerepublic.com, that you will now revised your thought process, to accept the power of the 9th amendment and reject the socialist notion that "rights" are only those that are enumerated.