In the wake of the killings at Virginia Tech, some gun nuts are saying we need more guns, with more people carrying concealed weapons so that anyone trying to attack a crowd or group would be met with numerous armed individuals. This would make us all safer supposedly. Yeah, right! Didn't we once have a period in U.S. history where most of the population carried guns? Wasn't it called the Wild West? Let me see...Europe has the wrong idea by having strict gun control and the U.S. has it right? The more civilized a society becomes, the more it needs its citizens to be armed? What am I missing here?

      Isn't it obvious that handguns serve one purpose, have one function? That purpose is to kill another human being. You don't go hunting anything but Man with a handgun. And why does America still condone assault rifles and banana clips that allow a shooter to fire dozens of rounds, then switch out quickly and fire another dozen rounds? For what does any American civilian need such firepower? What purpose is there for armor-piercing rounds but to kill a policeman wearing a protective vest? The majority of Americans polled say they favor gun control on such weapons/ammunition. However, the National Rifle Association lobby bullies and threatens any Congressman that dares support such legislation with targeting him/her in the next election and working to get them defeated so that a minority of gun enthusiasts have kept the will of the majority of Americans at bay for much too long.

      I have nothing against gun ownership for purposes of hunting or target practice/skeet shooting. Shotguns and hunting rifles (deer rifles) should be legal and licensed. However, we should rid America of all assault weapons, armor-piercing ammunition, automatic weapons, and any other guns, including handguns. Imagine how much safer we'd all be if easily concealed handguns were outlawed and taken off the streets. Make it a crime to own a handgun (except for law enforcement officers, members of the military, etc), and make it a federal crime to use any handgun in a criminal act. You rob a convenience store and steal $10, the local court gives you three months in jail and suspends the remainder but, because you had a gun, you must serve a mandatory 10-year sentence in federal prison with no parole, early-out, etc. Make every criminal know that carrying a gun puts them away for a long prison term no question asked, no exceptions. Make it a crime to own a handgun -- individuals can protect their home quite well with a shotgun instead of a handgun. Have an amnesty period where any handgun already in circulatuion must be turned in to police, and after that period expires, make ownership of handguns a crime in itself. Then, every group of teenage punks that ride around town, that loiter on streetcorners, or ride the subway will not be packing a piece, ready to blow your head off to prove what big, touch men they are. Anyone stopped by the police for any reason that is found to be carrying a gun is immediately arrested and sent to jail for say 5 years. Maybe there would be fewer and fewer guns on the streets, fewer muggings that end up with the victim shot for no reason, fewer drive-by shootings. We need to rid American society of armed civilians.

       I know the gun nuts argue that if we disarm the law-abiding citizens only the criminals will have guns. Make it where anyone with a gun goes to prison for a long time, for even longer if they actually use the gun to commit a crime, and criminals won't be so eager to possess guns. The gun nuts also argue The Constitution guarantees everyone the right to bear arms, to have a militia ready to defend the country. Do you really think that if the founding fathers of this country were to vist modern-day NYC or LA they would want everyone to be carrying guns? At the time The Constitution was ratified, women had no rights to own property or vote and slave ownership was legal. Just like America outgrew oppression of women and ownership of slaves, it has outgrown the time for all its citizens to be armed. And do you really think if the U.S. were to be invaded by a modern Army with today's firepower and weapons that gun-toting individuals would form an effective militia against them? It is past time to join modern times and become a civilized society that abolishes handguns, assault weapons, armor-piercing ammunition, automatic weapons, hand-held missiles...everything except shotguns and deer rifles used strictly for hunting. Come on, America. Let's join the rest of the world's civilized nations.