The origin of this "obsession" goes back roughly 250 years, when your King, I think his name was George, ordered some of his minions to confiscate our guns.
Actually I don't think most Americans are "obsessed" with guns. They are obsessed with cellphones, social media, fictional reality TV shows, etc.
Guns can be a fun hobby, (target practice/collecting), used for game hunting which is done even in Blighty, used for protection which is becoming a much more necessary issue like in London, NYC, L.A., D.C., etc. The criminals of the world have determined that the gov'ment can't protect individuals so they either learn how to protect themselves or they become statistics. It's real insanity in many places. 
Instead, you get terrorists ramming loaded box trucks ("lorries") into crowded markets and festivals and your government arrests people for "saying mean things on the internet" (such as the declaration that "trans" people are the gender defined by their genetics).
In all honesty criminals everywhere will always have guns or knives regardless of any laws prohibiting them. If you are not legally carrying in those environments and properly trained then you are defenseless. In Chicago as an example where guns are BANNED, Chicago is the murder capitol of the U.S.
You need to understand your environment and the risks. And BTW - CNN and the BBC are definitely NOT reliable news sources based on my experience in Urrup over 25+ years. I regularly need to send my friends in Germany factual reports to counter the media bias reported by the mainstream U.S. and Euro media. The lying media likes to "edit" video to serve their agenda.Just to add to this, Chicago likes to blame Indiana, Mississippi, and Louisiana for allowing easy access to guns and saying all their gun violence problems stem from those states, but the facts don't at all support that position; quite the contrary. In those states where it is significantly easier to both legally obtain and legally carry a firearm, the homicide rate is significantly, LAUGHABLY lower than Chicago. It turns out that an armed society is a polite society, and when you make legal weapon ownership and carry go away, criminals thrive.
The crims know most people don't carry and thus are easy targets. That is why they are emboldened to commit crime. Banning guns makes law abiding citizens defenseless. That's precisely why the 2nd Amendment was created.
Fear-mongering, nothing more. Cops aren't trigger happy like the idiots want you to believe. Keeping your hands visible is good advice so that you don't make a cop nervous, but they're not going to escalate straight to shooting you just because you put your hand in your lap.
Any southern Mexico border area is likely to have the same issues. Drug dealers and human traffickers will waste law enforcement in a heartbeat to escape long prison sentences. As is usually the case, the issue is not law-abiding citizens that are legally carrying, it's criminals who live and are willing to die by the sword or in this case the gun. Evil knows no limits and human life means nothing to these types. Being in law enforcement in many instances is a thankless occupation where your life is always in extreme danger.
