It's no different than a car guy lusting after a nice car. Guns are prevalent enough in the US to be a hobby unto themselves. There are classes, models with variable reputations, custom-made guns that are works of art in and of themselves, vintage collectables that remain fire-able (the sense of history from firing a WWII era M1 Garand that actually saw action is awesome), and more. Plenty of guys collect high class guns and never actually shoot them. As for where the hobby originates, the US has a gun culture not found in many nations. Our nation was built by militia who fought off the British using their guns, and settlers who relied on their guns to survive. There was a time where men in every town were required by law to own a firearm for militia duties. Virtually every US citizen had a profound respect for guns when this country was forged and a lot of that still filters down. That heritage is one reason we have a "right" to keep and bear arms and not a "privilege".
I will say that if guns don't do it for you fine, but the only reason to actively dislike guns is fear of them. Most gun control advocates have little or no first-hand knowledge of the very thing they seek to control, have never so much as held the weapons they condemn, and that's in large part why their efforts fail over here IMO.
And actually only ~40% of US households have guns, although that 40% does own enough to arm every man, woman and child in the US (~270,000,000 privately owned guns according to FBI estimates in 2009, and climbing). I lived in Virginia (a state with fairly lenient gun laws) and I never encountered a gun in real life until I was 20 and actively sought out the experience. Many of my peers have never even seen a gun.
