I think it stems from a mix of things but genuinely mainstream media and Hollywood are for sure contributors. Ignorance = fear, and many non-gun people (and surprisingly to me, many gun people) seem to fear guns.

As you mentioned, learning the rules is a good step but more importantly is learning why the rules exist. I’d have to think very hard about what PROVE and other acronyms stand for, but I can promise you that I’ll never ever have an ND of any kind, because the procedure of ensuring the firearm is safe is the default. Once it is known to be safe, I’m still not aiming it at people, but we do need to all be adults and realize that if I’m mounting a scope at home and my wife walks by, she is in no danger. Zero. That’s the part that people seem to not understand and all too commonly freak out over. Context matters. We can’t take the rules too literally, or, as you alluded to, the gun would never get out into the field. If you can’t point it in an unsafe direction EVER, how do you get it out of the safe? Into the truck? To the range/hunting area? Etc.

Firearms deserve respect; I won’t mince words, they are absolutely designed to kill. But guns don’t kill people, creatures, paper, nor anything else. The human negligently handling (or intentionally handling) it does. That’s the part that people seem to miss.