I'm white and grew up Christian in the very deepest part of the Deep South - that in and of itself pretty much guarantees that one grew up as a strong conservative...and I certainly did (including growing up with guns). For the first ten years of my military service I continued to be a strong conservative.
But you know what? When I traveled overseas, I found out just how much I had to unlearn. One of the things I had to unlearn was that NO, strong gun control laws are not any indication of tyranny - in fact, I felt MUCH safer walking around in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Dubai, South Korea, and even poor parts of Bangkok and Manila than I ever did walking around in American cities...
...and all these places have much stronger gun control than we do.
It's a whole different feeling, walking around even the poorer parts of a city but not having to worry too much about being approached by some idiot with a gun. You don't get that feeling here in America - it's a feeling of real freedom. Here in America, you walk around watching for threats from this or that person - "that person's got a bulge in his jacket pocket, the other person's wearing a hoodie, and the guy over there looks like an ex-con". But Over There one walks around without having to worry about other people - you're not having to watch so much for threats.
That's a real freedom that you get Over There - the freedom to relax a bit, to keep from having to watch almost every person one as a possible threat. It's a really, really nice feeling.
THAT is why this white retired military Southerner is all for gun control.