Additionally, gun collecting is demonstrative of collecting behavior, rather than treatment of the gun as purely a tool. Guns, especially given their purpose as tools, are simply not collectible totems.
Have you ever met anyone that has a firearm or firearm-related hobby? I'm guessing that you haven't.
A little secret: they're not all hicks, militia members, xenophobes, etc. Those terrible stereotypes don't apply to any of my friends and family members that keep guns, and I strongly suspect that they're not true of the general population either.
This is a really, really, really bad assumption. I don't know about ankhmoop, but I own guns and have throughout my life. Most of my family members own firearms and a couple of my friends are collectors. I, too, am alarmed by sudden increases in firearm sales in the US, as are all other gun owners that I have spoken to about it, since it has been prompted by political rhetoric and the economic downturn.
Guns are beautiful machines made by men.
Some people collect cars, others hand-painted Easter eggs.
Guns are quite collectible totems qua beautiful machines.
You appear to contradict your statement that "Guns are just tools".
In Boy Scouts we were taught to respect and appreciate guns as the very dangerous tools they are. I can personally only agree with your original statement: Guns -are- only tools, and should only be treated as tools.