I can even add a real-world experience to that one. A little over 5 years ago, some guy picked the lock on my apartment's door and got in. It was the wee hours, but I heard him picking the lock (I was awake at the time), and retrieved my slide-action shotgun from it's resting place beside my bed. I took up a position behind the doorframe of my living room door, pointed it at the front door, and waited until he actually entered. I worked the slide action, the noise from it was enough to tell him I was awake, armed, and was threatening to put a world of hurt on him. He did what I hoped---tucked tail and ran! Didn't even have to fire a shot.

Honestly, I think that shotgun might have saved my life that night---this guy was a lot bigger than I am. One poster on this thread suggested a baseball bat and going to the gym---well, I'm 5'9" tall, in excellent condition, and served six years in the Marines. I imagine I'm probably as tough as any in a fistfight, few as I've ever been in. But you never know what or who you're confronting, or what they may be armed with---criminals don't obey laws.

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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely----Lord Acton

I was just on Gunsamerica.com and i found a section selling 40mm GRENADE LAUNCHERS and cannons and other riff raff. Shouldn't you be more worried about that than about a mere Winchester or Colt? Regarding the author of this topic, i actually think it's MORE safe to allow everyone to bear arms. And it may be easy to buy a gun, but not a license for full auto, 50 caliber or concealed weapon.

I truly wish I could walk around in public with a holstered pistol, quite frankly. I don't want my safety in the hands of an under-paid, over-fed high-school drop-out with a mall-security badge.

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"Those who turn swords into plowshares will do the plowing for those who do not" - Anon

"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded emotional and mental development" - Sigmund Freud

Move to Arizona.
I hear that open carry is still legal there.

Yes, but did you know that gun crime-rates jumped in australia, canada and the UK right after successive gun-control laws were passed in each? And that the crime rate overall in the US has risen steadily since the gun control act was passed in the 1960s no matter how many more gun control laws were passed?

The fact is, I could kill you with a rock, stick, rope, kitchen knife, the list goes on. Even if you were able to remove every gun on earth you couldn't reduce crime, because both the people who use guns defensively and those who use them offensively would now have to turn to chair legs and barbed wire.

The only real difference is that now we would lack the ability to defend ourselves, we would have to rely on the dubious efficiency of law enforcement, and we would lose the capability to rebel against a corrupt or evil government.

The fact is, 99.9% of civilian-owned firearms in the US will not be used to commit a violent crime this year, and 99.6% of Civilian-owned handguns will not be used to commit a crime this year.

Gun control is the tool of the totalitarian to rule the masses with an iron-fist. "Any who intend to rule a people must first disarm them" - Niccolo Machiavelli

"Those who turn Swords into plowshares will do the plowing for those who do not"
- Anon

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed--unlike citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
James Madison

"The right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which... historically has proven to be always possible."
United States Senator Hubert Humphrey

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed."
Noah Webster, author, An American Dictionary of the English Language

"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms... serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
Ceasare Beccaria, 18th century criminologist

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"Those who turn swords into plowshares will do the plowing for those who do not" - Anon

"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded emotional and mental development" - Sigmund Freud

How would the public being armed stop the government doing anything?

One problem gun-control advocates have is that guns are not useful for anything except killing things. You don't have to have a gun to kill someone, but I think the gun helps.
Gun crime is a lot lower in Europe than the States precisely because there are less guns and they are less freely available, the simple fact being that most people cannot be trusted to own and operate a firearm responsibly.

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In your face, space coyote!

This is the premise of Socialism, Marxism and Fascism. The citizenry is too dumb to handle it's own affairs. Humanity at large is far, far to stupid to defend itself, think for itself, handle it's own money or raise it's own children, so the State tm needs to do it!

That problem arises here: Who is the State tm? The State tm consists of members of the very same humanity at large that is too stupid to handle it's own affairs! If people are too stupid to do it, and the government is people, why are they better suited to run our lives than we are?

Why does a forty year old German business man honestly believe that an Eighteen year-old kid with three months of training in the army is more suited to own and operate a firearm than he? Because he is raised from birth believing in the Myth of the State's superiority to the Individual. And this Superiority concept is a fallacy.

Firearms do allow a populace to resist an evil government, and they allow the people to defend themselves. If firearms were not a taboo subject, children raised around them would never get into accidents in the first place.

The reason the myth of State Superiority is advanced is to enable the control of an absolutist regime.

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"Those who turn swords into plowshares will do the plowing for those who do not" - Anon

"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded emotional and mental development" - Sigmund Freud

The US is horrible for gun violence, theres no doubt about that. This is probably the result of a lack of gun control. People just buy guns for the sake of saying im excerising my right. That may be fine to some, but if you want to stop crime you need ot start developing a process where people must get safety training, screened, references should be consulted, and so on. Guns are weapons, they shouldn't be as easily accessible as groceries or toys. Countries with good records of preventing gun crimes typically have a comprehensive process one must go through before receiving a firearms license.

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"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives." — John Stuart Mill

Guns are a necessary tool for a free state to exist. They should be as accessible as groceries and toys.

In all seriousness, the right to own and bear arms can not be infringed upon if we truly wish to be free. There are things which the government may do to try to combat crime, however they can not accomplish this goal by expanding past the constraints of the Constitution.

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WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

I disagree with every aspect of this post.
Guns are not "as easily accessible as groceries or toys"
and a normal firearms purchase takes around 4 days depending where you are. Forms are filled out, ID's are verified, and background checks are made. To claim otherwise is just propaganda.
Sounds like a "comprehensive process" to me.