What's all the arguing about over this. I think is basically point of view dependent on your location. I grew up in rural North Dakota. Everyone out there has a gun. We used them for hunting, and protection. I highly doubt you could goto any farm out there was not armed. We took guns as seriously then as we do now and TRAINED people how to use them in hunter safety classes and hands on training. Going to school, I would have to guess that there where at least 50 if not a lot more guns of all types sitting in the parking lot at any given time. Hell, I had 3 in mine. My 20 gauge pump, a 10/22 ruger rifle, and a 12 gauge semi auto. Each gun had a purpose and was use regularly. I personally was never big on hand guns, since they didn't have any real use in hunting etc, but I do have many friends who use them at ranges and such for target practice. Don't be fooled by the guns aren't dangerous people are crap... even in the hands of someone trained to use them, they can still be deadly. I took a 22 in the leg while target shooting with friends (bounced off something) have no idea what really as we where shooting off the top of a wooden fence... Still have the perfect round scar. Could have been much worse though. Today, I stay away from guns for the most part. I still own 3, but they have not been out of their cases in over 20 years. (plus they are stored at my fathers some 1100 miles away). That said, I still plan on getting a new shotgun soon, since I'm moving out to country again and don't want to be out there without some sort of protection if I needed it. The last thing I want is for some fucking meth heads showing up at my front door in the middle of the night without having something to defend myself with. (Course the fact that I have 2 great danes and a coon/dane mix and 2 more Danes on the way, should in theory keep just about any unwelcome person at bay.) My Brindle male is 190 pound of pure muscle and very protective of his yard and I know a lot of people that talk big about guns that would think twice about having HIM go off...