About gun control.

I'm of the opinion to suspect that the average American would not have the guts to shoot someone with their gun that they're allowed to have as stated by the Constitution. Even in self defence, people neurologically have a difficult time taking another human life. Let's take a proverbial man named Bob. Bob lives in Detroit, and today he's standing on his porch watching as a dude in a ski mask with a black car is driving up to his house. Now let's put a gun in Bob's hand. The man in the ski mask pulls his car into Bob's driveway, and lifts up the garage door. He doesn't see Bob standing there, holding a gun pointed at the dude's head. Bob's hand is trembling because he's never killed someone before, but his three year old daughter is inside the house sleeping, so he pulls the trigger. The bullet rips through the burgler's left thigh, by any means a completely survivable injury. The burgler drops the garage door and falls to the ground in agony, and pulls out his own gun which he bought legally at a gun store (he had no criminal record, and turned to burglary because he'd lost his job and was desperate for money so that he wouldn't have to live in his car). Meanwhile the neighbors call the cops because they hear gunshots. Bob, feeling relieved that the man isn't dead, because this means his conscience is clear of the guilt that tends to come along with killing a man, is now faced with the possibility of being shot himself as the burgler is now holding his gun at Bob. The burgler has never killed anyone before either, and is using the gun in hopes of scaring Bob into not killing him, because the burgler doesn't want to die any more than Bob does. Bob, scared out of his wits, pulls the trigger and plugs the burgler square in the chest. This is a fatal wound this time, but in the moment before death the burgler pulls the trigger, more from the shock of the impact than intent to kill, but the damage is done and Bob dies as well. The police arrive to find two dead men on a driveway clutching pistols, with a three year old child screaming in the house. Had neither of the men had guns the scenario would have ended most likely with a high speed chace as the burgler tries to escape with the stuff he stole from Bob's house. He would have been caught, since he wasn't evil, just desperate, and eventually realizes that escape is futile. Bob is badly shaken, but otherwise he's fine.

And as to the use of guns to protect the populace from the government, I feel this is a useless pursuit because the army, especially after having its ranks swelled out of proportion by the heavy recruitment and new technology from the iraq war, could not exactly be stopped by a few civilians with handguns. It takes more than your neigborhood firearms dealer to bring down a tank.

I think gun control is the correct avenue to take in this moral conflict.