Trust the military dude to get all sensible on us.
Anyhoo, responsible gun owners should find a way to actively promote responsible gun ownership. If you want it, you can have it, subject to rules and regulations. Just like (almost) anything in a free country.
Here are some stat's to make us all feel happy.

The two leading mechanisms of injury deaths among adolescents in the USA are motor vehicle crashes and firearms.
In 2003, motor vehicle traffic caused the deaths of 5,169 adolescents between 15-19 years of age. The vast majority of those killed were in motor vehicle accidents either as a passenger or driver. Deaths of pedestrians, motorcyclists, and others accounted for the remainder of motor vehicle mortality among adolescents. The total road toll for the USA was 44,443 dead.
In 2003, firearms caused the deaths of 2,469 adolescents aged between 15-19. Of these, homicide accounted for 65 percent of firearms deaths, suicide accounted for 30 percent, and 4 percent were considered to be unintentional. The total death count caused by firearms is over 48,000 for the year 2003.

I'm pretty sure that not many of these kids were licenced or registered gun owners.