I know 4 people that have had their houses burglarized in the last two years. One was home at the time and received a severe beating (lucky the burglar wasn't armed probably). My step-mom's sister was murdered in her home by an aquaintance that had been there earlier that evening. And no, she didn't let him in the second time. He broke in and stabbed her to death and then tried to kill her roomate as well. I know a guy who came home from the farm one day and a guy had broken into his house and was trying to get his wife. He took his pistol, backed the guy down, then beat him to within an inch of his life with it. Never fired a shot.I don't believe pistols (or guns in general for that matter) should be banned. There was the whole assault weapon thing there years ago. Now I happened to own one of those and took offense that they wanted to take it from me. I used it legitimately as a hunting weapon only and when my hunting priveledges are challenged I tend to get riled some. I would like to see the % of children that are accidentally killed by handguns. This is a case of parents not taking responsibility for their weapons most of the time. You don't leave a pistol out. You don't leave ammunition out. You don't store ammunition with your weapons. Basic safety.
IF someone wants to kill someone else of course a pistol is the most conveinent as it's portable and small typically. But a rifle is
just as deadly. I can't hit anything past 20 yards with a pistol, but anything out to 400-450 yards with a rifle is more than fair game. I think that's why most mass killers choose rifles over pistols.???
My pet peeve is drunk driving more than guns. For the simple fact that the right to bear arms is exactly that, a right. Whereas there is no right to drive. It is a priveledge, period. And I don't know how many times I've seen that abused. Myself included when I was young and stupid. My wife's 18 year old brother was killed by a DD a couple months into our dating. Right out of high school. My cousin was killed by a drunk judge who ran a stop sign in broad daylight in the middle of town and hit him on his motorcycle. Guy didn't spend one minute in jail. No fine, no sorry, no insurance, no nothing. I think if you get caught DD it should be at lease a 5 year mandatory suspension of your license and more community service than you can stand. So what if you can't get to work anymore, should have thought about that before hand. There seem to be lots of rules, but consequences are not enforced anymore. I know a guy that has gotten out of 5 DUI's.