"Death Becomes Us" or "Repurposing the War Machine"

Today's subject is a bit outside of my normal periphery but I've been thinking about it off and on for a while now. After catching part of a news bit on NPR about drug cartels in Mexico and the violence associated with them I decided to finally post something.
To begin, I believe that people should be permitted to own a firearm, however, they should also be required to pass a safety seminar (more than a ten minute instruction on how to point & shoot), and I believe that they should be limited to a firearm within reason. For instance, I own a shotgun which is used for hunting, it is simple and basic and serves the purpose very well and if so needed, it could serve to protect my family & home. There is no need for the ridiculous amount of semi-auto and automatic firearms of various calibers that exist in the hands of so many people today. I understand that many of them do use caution and common sense, but I fear, and the news makes it obvious, that many do not. The entire idea of "Army Surplus" is ludicrous, why did we generate so many weapons that we have a massive surplus? Furthermore, who is the genius that decided they should be made available to untrained civilians with little or no need for such devices? Really, who needs a fifty caliber sniper rifle?
If we find ourselves sitting on a mountain of weapons, wouldn't it make more sense to disassemble them and recycle them into new military equipment when it's needed rather than disperse them to whomever has the cash? If you really want a picture of why we need gun control visit the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot held every spring & fall in Knob Creek Kentucky, talk about your proud American moments! (Dear God, please get the sarcasm there!)
Aside from our own domestic gun problems, we also need to answer for the problems of the countries that are utilizing our surplus, such as the drug cartels in Mexico (see, I finally brought it back to the NPR segment).
I know what some may say about this- "If guns are too controlled then only the criminals will have guns." Yes, you're right, and that's primarily because a severe lack of common sense and control by the responsible party (U.S. government and military) has allowed criminals to purchase them. It's that simple, if military grade weapons are being sold to civilians it's because the military is selling them. I guess that as long as most crimes involving firearms remain primarily in the lower income areas, there's no reason to try and remedy the situation since the people living there are of little intrinsic value, much like the countries we don't bother to assist like Mexico and Africa. We're better off focusing our efforts on places with perceived value such as the middle east.