I think guns should be treated like any other item. I read somewhere the best guess is that there are 300 million in civilian hands in the country. Trying to regulate an item that plentiful is futile, especially considering that criminals, crazies, etc will always be able to get guns through theft, murder, smuggling, etc. Guns should not be registered, tracked or regulated any more than the axe, machete, chainsaw or gallon of gas I can buy that I could assault/kill people with.
Depending on my mood, I either get a kick or frustrated when statists draw one of these comparisons like "We regulate [X] so much more than [Y] -- why the difference? We should be regulating [Y] just as hard as [X]!"
The default in their "minds" is that if there's a difference it must be equalized by INCREASING goobermint power. Logic would say "If both scenarios are working OK, and one is far more regulated than the other, how do you justify the REGULATED case?"