going to buy a rifle---advice?

[rabosi]

Adding to what JT said, I would think that most people who have small children in their home keep their guns locked up making it more difficult to access in the middle of the night.
As for american's love of guns, I think it's because the country was founded in the gun era, where the gun was almost a necessity for survival. Even poor people owned guns. Most other cultures started before the gun era.