We are unfortunately very blind from a social perspective as to the reality of the current gun "appreciation" tactics in America. From a social anthropological point of view such blatant audacious intimidating public displays of one's firearms is in reality the final representation of the limit of UNCIVIL behavior which normally precedes direct targeted violence. More discussion below the orange squiggle.
America's lobbyist industries in their unceasing competition to attract the richest clients have in the course of their adversarial PR business driven the public discourse down to the most uncivil levels in American history. In essence they have utterly polluted the American mainstream conversation with a continuous flow of disrespectful invective and other pernicious hyperbole to the point that such incendiary words have begun to sculpt an aggressive anti-social intolerant destructive oriented sense of behavior among certain segments of the public, most notable those who advocate for no restrictions on firearms and those who advocate against any form of contraception, birth control, or abortion.
In the case of the anti-gun control advocates, they have assumed the most ridiculous idea that their 2nd Amendment Constitutional rights are being deliberately compromised by any attempt to pass any new gun control laws anywhere. As a result they have enthusiastically created a campaign similar to and imitative of the “African-American Civil Rights Campaign" of the 1960's; including a non-subtle “do-over” of the famous "lunch counter sit-in's" that was pursued as a tactic by African-American students against segregated lunch counters in the south.
In this respect the gun advocate groups have adopted "Gun Appreciation" days in states allowing open carry of firearms, during which gun advocates parade with their firearms prominently on display through restaurants, coffee shops, theaters, and malls. This aggressive level of behavior is far less an attempt to demonstrate a Constitutional right than it is much more of a highly intimidating anti-social act. In effect the open brandishing of firearms in public conveys to other peaceful folks in the immediate area the immediate inference the essence of the following statement by the holder of the firearm, and that is; “Look, see this is MY weapon which I can (even on a whim) easily use to shoot you dead in your tracks in less time than it takes to blink an eye, and YOU have no means of preventing or surviving it."
Those of us who grew up watching the old Hollywood Westerns are very familiar with the sudden onset of unmistakably painful concern etched on the faces of the local patrons inside a local saloon marking the noisy entrance of a group of well-armed dusty cowboys striding through the swinging doors and heading immediately for the well-worn bar. We in the movie audience also start filling with anxiety watching those same dusty cowboys swigging shots of whiskey all the while fingering the butts of guns slung in their holsters that "trouble was surely a-brewing". This same level of fear and concern also happens off-screen in real life to real people, and in many instances trouble, injury, and death actually does follow.
The current generation of Americans has lost the will to fight for their beliefs and their rights. Know this as citizens of this nation we have the right to freely move around throughout our local communities without the constant fear of suddenly being struck down as a random victim of some senseless unbridled firearms violence. Our soldiers have fought and died in many wars just to preserve and guarantee all Americans the right of free un-intimidated assembly in publically safe societies throughout this nation. The usurpation of our rights by those who seek to dominate society with their respective ideology and highly subjective point of view will only continue to grow unless we, the American public decide to initiate change and stop it. Aggressive advocate groups like various gun owners associations are like the school yard bully that we witnessed as children. We all know that the bully, once gaining control over the children out for recreation in the schoolyard, will continue to get more and more aggressive against selected children until someone in the group becomes brave and strong enough to retaliate against the bully. Likewise in our current situation thousands will continue to be killed through firearms violence - until some of us become fed up enough to take on our own particular societal bully we will all continue to suffer destruction, and in the case of this unique paradigm, continue to die.