So they think. This says otherwise:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
And in the last 18 months or so, we have been exercising at least the "keep" part of that to the hilt. To the point where waits for ammunition are measured in months, and the orders measured in the several hundreds to a few thousands of rounds. We've bought enough guns to equip every memember of the Chinese and Indian armies, the two largest in the world, with a brand new firearm. Plus many were already quite well armed before that.
The whole compact of government is that by ceding the monopoly on the use of force to a government, it is supposed to use that force to protect us.
Americans, save a few deep red states, have never ceded a monopoly on the use of force to the government. It's just that in the past that private force has been used against other private individuals, such as thieves, rapists and (would be) murderers.
But even with an individual right to keep and bear arms, the government is the sole legitimate keeper of the right to use force except in limited circumstances such as the right to protect yourself, family and property or to prevent the comission of a crime. Other than that, the state reserves the right to violence to itself whether to punish or to enforce. It is the charter of the US federal government, the Constitution, which limits the scope of that power by the federal government. Without that compact, society runs amok. Anarchy.
But the basis of the compact is trust, and the Dems have broken that trust in a big way. Most people cannot even articulate what has been lost, but they understand, instinctively that something intrinsic has changed. The conservatives in this country have a chance to again show the people of this country that they can control their destiny, but they must be the stewards of government that they failed to be the last time around.