As to the accessibility of guns, I would just say that people who have it within themselves to be cruel to defenseless animals (or people for that matter) will do it with or without accessibility to firearms.

There was a story recently in the Indianapolis newspaper about some idiot who used a staple gun to torture a cat...I saw the cat's picture (which survived and is something of a local hero)...and I wanted to find the soul-less creep and do the same in return.

Even a peace pipe can be a weapon in the hands of a person with no conscience.