Handguns won't make you any safer, they only make you armed.

[MrScorpio]

Most people buy handguns because they don't feel safe. So, the problem starts there at that fear of violence and get even worse and more complicated when you throw a handgun in the mix.

Part of the problem is the American gun culture in general, but the most important problem is the culture of VIOLENCE in America. People can have all kinds of firearms; rifles, shotguns, antiques, for sport or hunting or just for decorations. All guns aren't necessarily involved in violent acts, but in this country, the worst violent acts usually involve guns.

People buy handguns because they don't feel safe in this violent country, so we need to take a look at the violence first and foremost. Not just because of people who go on mass shooting sprees, but also for the so-called armed sane people who're afraid of being a victim of the violent society in which we all live.

Sane people commit acts of violence too... It's the violence that we need to stop. If we just concentrate on the guns alone, we're just doing nothing to deal with the cause of the all the problems.

[jody]

1. "Handguns won't make you any safer" and books won't make you any smarter. It's still up to

you to use a tool effectively.

Knowing how to use a handgun makes you safer and knowing how to use books makes you smarter.

If you doubt that, talk with 840,000 sworn law enforcement officers who daily use handguns as their primary tool of choice for self-defense.

Their use is a privilege granted by government, not a natural, inherent, inalienable/unalienable right possessed by law-abiding citizens as sovereign entities before they accepted the social contracts we honor as state constitutions and the Constitution.

[Edweird]

2. So, basically only bad guys can aim guns?

Are you suggesting that only bad guys be allowed to own handguns since they apparently are the only ones capable of using them "safely"?

[nc4bo]

3. I kindof feel like we're all circling the drain here, there and everywhere.

It seems that our violent societal tendencies, really easy access to weapons, our culture of non-empathy, callousness and selfishness in general, our media propaganda machines (and orgs. like the NRA) and the fear/threat or hate mongering they do on a 24/7 365 basis, (like another DUer mentioned somewhere today) our MIC, our cowardly politicians lacking balls (or paid to lack them) to address real problems or present real solutions, our numbness to the horrors of violence, lack of living wage paying jobs, unemployment, lots of people on the streets with nowhere to go and nothing to do but have hungry kids to feed and families to support, bills to be paid.........all in a big ugly circle tied together...........where do we begin to break the circle then the cycle?