guns aint got nothin to do with it, switzerland isnt full of idiot americans//
I think that if the US looked a lot more like Switzerland, the world would be a better place. Mandatory military service would keep the douche-bag civilian war-mongerers from constantly pushing for the next juicy conflict (or at least keep them from garnering enough public support for it, right now, most people don't have a horse in the race). Furthermore, mandatory military service would mean that at least there would be SOME weapons safety training, which I think is the largest issue the US faces. Win, win.
The nice thing about some mandatory training would be that it would serve as a secondary screen for mental health issues, if someone is being irresponsible with a firearm during training, or isn't mature enough… FAILED. Come back in six months.
Right now, each gun in the US that is bought for self-defense is four times more likely to accidentally injure you or one of your family members and eleven times more likely to be used in a successful or attempted suicide than to be used for it's intended purpose.
With proper training and storage, those numbers could be reduced dramatically.