You have, in the following sentence, identified the nub of the gun issue:

“Argue that citizens don’t need guns, because the police are there to protect us.”

Fewer and fewer people believe in the premise of a government working to protect them. People are witnessing government running amok.

At the Federal level, politicians are inciting wars overseas and terrorism at home, using the results as an excuse to expand the Surveillance State, giving them steadily more control over every facet of life. At the local level, police are acting like soldiers, using combat techniques in communities to turn them into battlefields.

Most people would love to have fewer guns around, but if there is to be effective disarmament it needs to start with the worst, the most egregious purveyors of armed violence: the politicians. Take away their ability to make enemies overseas, and dry up terrorism at its source. Train police to be partners again with their communities, not combatants in war zones. Once that settles in, the private ownership of guns will begin to seem unnecessary. Until then, look for more more and guns to be squirreled away as ordinary people exercise prudence against the assault they see coming.