To make a basic analogy, I like to compare guns with cooking knives. If you teach a kid to properly handle a sharp cooking knife when they are young they learn respect for the dangers of that knife and only use it in a safe manner. With guns, I think childhood education is vital to maintaining a safe society where people can freely carry weapons with respect to the principles of the second amendment.
Also, in crimes committed with guns you find a very high likelihood that the guns was poorly maintained or just not set up correctly at all. Police commonly find perps who load up the wrong kind of ammunition or load it incorrectly. I think this is a testament to the fact that the uneducated lack respect for the power of a gun.