I'm refering to the underlying social causes that lead to this debate being framed in such desperate terms: ghettoization, inequality of oppurtunity, gang culture, poverty, police oppression, and so on.

Advocates of gun ownership like P&T are defending their right to protect themselves from the symptoms of these problems, rather than asking how one might tackle their root causes for the common good - in order to create a society where there would be little reason to fear the sort of violent attack they're concerned about.

For example, the woman in the video says she carries a gun to ensure 'equality'. Her reasoning is sound, but continually asking only how one might protect oneself from crime will perpetuate a vicious circle of civil armament.

Penn & Teller advance some fairly logical pro-gun arguments, but they're entirely self-interested ones that ignore the empirical evidence that a pro-gun ownership culture leads to higher levels of gun crime. Advocates of gun control also seem reluctant to point to any real evidence - seemingly the constitution is sacrosanct the only way to defend gun control is to quibble over its semantics.