From Day 0, the people that settled the North American east coast had to fend for themselves to some degree. The Crown was an ocean away, so if something situation arose for the most part they were on their own. Same goes for sustenance. The marketplaces of Europe hadn't been established there. Hungry? Had to hunt or trap your food. You wanted a jacket, had to hunt or trap for your leather and fur.
Just the undeveloped nature of where they lived necessitated that the colonists become self-sufficient, it fostered a sense individualism. Everyone has their hands full handling their affairs, you need to pull your own weight in the colony. And so, what is the most efficient hunting implement? The long arm, and so enter the gun. From there the gun became an important tool for survival, not just an important tool, but a respected tool that was passed from generation to generation. And so history went.
The colonial period gave way to independence and the Louisiana Purchase which more than doubled the territory of the US. Again, the Louisiana Territory wasn't developed, it was the first generation of settlers moving in along with hunters and trappers. Like the era before them, local authorities were far and in between. You had trouble with bandits and other ruffians, you had to take care of them. That rifle on the wall that you use to get game, you're also pointing it at people seeking to do you harm for their own gain. Same goes for the marketplaces of New York and Boston. Like the marketplaces of London and Paris which were far and away from the original colonists, New York and Boston were far and away from these settlers. If you were hungry, had to go and hunt or trap your dinner. You were cold and wanted a jacket? Had to go out and shoot or trap for your leather and fur. And so history went.
Flintlocks worked by the user pouring and ramming powder and ball down the barrel and pouring a charge in the pan. A metal lid with a lip would be closed over the pan. When the trigger was pulled the cock holding the flint, slammed down and scraped against the lip, dropping sparks into the charge in the pan, igniting the charge which then ignited the power behind the barrel and launched the ball, firing the gun.
As Louisiana was more settled and began to develop, people kept on moving west. The farther west you went, the farther away from the authority of government, and easy access to a variety of goods diminished. As the people moved west, the gun moved with them. The gun remained an important and respected tool. Even the Native Americans came to respect the gun for it's utility, the top item of trade they wanted, were rifles. The only thing that really changed was the technology of the gun. The flintlock mechanism gave way to the percussion cap mechanism which granted far more reliable method of ignition. History marched on.
As time went on, settlers continued to push west, and still with them, came the gun. The only difference was the gun was now changed by Civil War advances in technology made by the Union. Muzzle-loaders (front loaders) gave way to breach-loading trap door designs (you load from the back of the rifle) and repeating designs like the Spencer and Henry rifles (aka the Winchester rifle of Old West fame) as well as their pistol counterparts giving way to the revolver. Technology might have changed the gun, but the gun continued to be an important and respected tool of frontier life.
The percussion mechanism was an improvement over the flintlock in that it replaced the flint and loose powder and pan with a hammer and percussion cap. Like the flintlock, powder and ball were rammed down the barrel, but now, the mechanism had a nipple that funneled the charge into the chamber and ignited the powder. The cap was placed on the nipple, the hammer discharged the cap, and the cap ignited the power and fired the gun. This made for faster ignition and more reliable ignition in rain and muggy weather.
Even as history declared the frontier closed and settled in 1890, things had no means completed development. Outside of the large established cities like San Francisco, you are still largely out on your own to handle your affairs. Which continued to make the gun and important tool for self defense. The United States of America is 240 years old, 114 of those years had a large open frontier to the west, that is nearly half of this country's existence, and that's not including the preceding Colonial Era. That is at least 114 years in which the gun had to integrate itself into the culture of the New World. Not just exist within the culture but because of the role it played in frontier life, for such a long period, it became a part of that culture. One may point to slavery as a part of cultural heritage, however slavery was an institution. An institution set up for the sake of profit, in contrast, the gun became an integral part of the national identity though necessity. A necessity that still continues today given that for practical reasons the modern incarnations of those agents of the state, modern police departments aren't everywhere at once. Furthermore slavery was never fully integrated into American culture, slavery was only accepted in certain circles, where as in any part of the country one could find someone making use of the utility of the gun, be it someone living in a free state or a slave state. This continues today, with gun-ownership crossing multiple divides, rich, poor, Black, White, Asian, Latino, gay, straight, one will continue to find all strip of Americans from all parts of the country owning a gun.
The trapdoor mechanism, which many of the percussion rifles were retrofitted with, operated with a hatch at the rear of the gun. The hatch, or trap-door was flipped upward, a single cartridge inserted into chamber, the door was closed and the hammer cocked, locking the door in place, and the trigger dropped the hammer onto a firing pin which fired the cartridge. This increased a shooters rate of fire almost ten-fold, having no longer needing to load power and bullet separately from the front of the gun.
The Spencer (top) and Winchester (bottom) rifles were introduced during the Civil War and gave the Union Army a distinct and overwhelming advantage in firepower against the Confederacy. They were some of the first "repeating rifles" rifles that could be fired multiple times before reloading. Both rifles had an internal magazine holding multiple self-contained cartridges ("bullets") and each shot was chambered by operating a leaver (integrated into the trigger guard on both rifles) that both ejected the spent cartridge and loaded the next one from the magazine. The Winchester in particular built it's fame and reputation during the Old West Era following the Civil War, where it was used by settler, lawman, Native American, and bandit alike for their own purposes.
This was the advancement that made the above rifles possible. The metallic self-contained cartridge, (self-contained paper cartridges existed as early as 1812). This combined the powder, percussion cap and the ball (the bullet) all into one convenient package. No long did the shooter need to perform multiple distinct tasks to operate his firearm, he simply had to load in this one package and he was ready to fire.
But it isn't only the gun that has journeyed along side us though the American experience. But also the idea of individualism. The government was there, but because it was so far away you had to be able to take care of yourself until the government was able to get there to be the ultimate arbitrator. That sense of independence, of taking care of yourself, never truly went away either, it, and the gun, go hand in hand together. Yes you work together with your community, but you all contribute to the community, the community doesn't contribute to you. With so many people moving west, and setting up new settlements, this resulted in a large portion of the population being armed with guns from early on. Even today that sense of independence plays a role, while we may have police services set up, they still have a response time, and in that regard they are still some distance away.
The AR-15, introduced in 1963 originally designed in 1958, menace to society? No, just an continuation of the gun's legacy in the American cultural experience. It operates on principals developed around the 1880s (the world's first semi-automatic rifle being the Mexican Mondragon going into service in 1908, John Browning's M1895 gas-operated machine gun having gone into service even earlier in 1895 and was designed in 1889). A portion of the gas used to propel the bullet is siphoned off and used to operate mechanism to "automatically" eject the spent casing and load the next cartridge. The direct impingement system used by the AR-15 is nothing more than a refinement of those same principals developed in the late 1800s. The AR-15 operates differently from it's predecessors, but ultimately it's character is no different from the Winchesters that came before, and the Kentucky rifle that came before that, what it will and won't do is wholly dependent on the person holding it.
This sets the American Experience (I include the Colonial Era, Spanish, British and French, as part of the Experience) apart from the Eurasian Experience in a significant way. There was never a period in the American Experience where the gun did not exist. Alexander's Empire, the Roman Empire and the Mongol Empire all spread their boarders and settled the land with the sword. Battles were fought with the blade, by Spartan Hoplites, by Roman Legionaires, by armored knights. Metropolitan culture had already developed in Europe long before the first matchlock muskets started to appear in the mid-1400s. Over a millenia ago Rome had stood at it's height atop the most developed empire the world had yet seen. A grandeur and splendor that the gun had no part in playing. The Old World was already built when the gun entered the world stage, in contrast the gun was there from the start to help build the New World.
In the New World, it wasn't the sword or the bow that the frontier settler relied on, it was the gun. The New World, wasn't just a new world, it was the ground that a new culture would take root in and grow from. Some may compare Australia to America, as Europeans arrived in Australia around the time as in North America, the Dutch made landfall in 1606, but there are key differences. Inland, North America was very rich and fertile land. Meaning there was a lot of space to be settled, plenty of room for people. In fact, compared to the rest of the country, the middle portion of the United States is not as populated and is derisively refereed to as "flyover country". By contrast central Australia was inhospitable desert. The other differentiating factor was where the American colonies were set up to enrich the British homeland, the First Fleet that arrived in Australia were looking to set up a penal colony. The first free colony wasn't settled until later, well into period of Manifest Destiny in North America that had settlers pushing west. These differing factors set America apart from Australia, America and Australia do not share the same cultural experiences.
Going back to the question of where gun-culture in the US came from, there is my answer. It was always there it was, and continues to be an integral part of the culture of the United States. So what does this ultimately all mean? It means that European solutions, and Australian solutions, and Asian solutions to social issues where guns are involved, will NOT, and likely not EVER work in the United States. The US, while having traditions spun off from the Old World, is a completely different culture. Just as how Christianity is wholly separate from Judaism, despite having spun off from Judaism. Unlike Canada or Australia, the United States literally threw out the Old World. The US kicked out British, and it kicked out the last investigates of the Spanish Empire from Cuba. To find an effective solution, an American solution must be found, not a solution copy-pasted from nations that do not share the same experiences. Guns are every bit a part of American culture as the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, the freedom to live your life as you see fit.
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