I don't know how many of you here have ever been in an actual situation where you needed a gun, when you life was in peril? That might change you opinion a bit.
A few years ago, I woke up around 3 a.m. to the sound of someone going through spare change on teh top of my dresser next to my bed. I rolled over to see a big black guy the size of a linebacker, in the light from my TV set. I was rolled up asleep in teh blanket and he hadn't noticed me. As I rolled over, he got surprised and I was trying to think what to do. Through his legs I saw that he'd gathered together power tools and some other valuables. I then realized he was one of the local crackhead thugs in the neighborhood and his brother, a plumber, was a friend of mine. I had seen the guy the day before on a corner with his brother and when I stopped to say hi, he was bragging about his new (illegal) handgun. So, I know had him in my house, robbing me..and he was standing up and I was already laying down...so I decided to try and talk him out. The only gun I own is a 12-gauge pump shotgun and it was under the bed. I got lucky and once I started talking to him and he knew I caught him in the act, unbelievable, he decided to ask me "if I still needed someone to paint an apartment?" He actually decided to act as if he'd broken into my house at 3 a.m. to ask for work...but that at least brought the situation down a notch. I tols him I would call his brother if I needed someone and told him he had to leave. Then he asked if I had "any spare change" and I said to look on top of my dresser and take what he needed....and I got up wrapped in a blanket and escorted him out and locked my door. Apparently my girlfriend had decided that she HAD to go up and buy a box of Fuit Loops at 3 a.m. amd had left the door open...the thug had seen her leave..and that's why he tried to get it, thinking the house was vacant. I got REAL lucky. I didn't think I could make a grab for my shotgun and chance him having his new handgun on him, so I chose "Plan B." But the world is FULL of people like this who would rob and kill you in a heartbeat. If the situation had gone differently and it came down to a fight and having to grab for my gun and shoot or be killed, I'd like to think I would have had the balls to stay alive. But I'd rather first try and not have to shoot somone. I see absolutely no reason why I, as a law abiding US citizen, should not be allowed to buy and own whatever firearm I choose, for sport or protection.
To answer the question, no. But I feel the need to point out that you are asking an irrelevant question, which ironically begs the pertinant one: how come so many people in the US find themselves in such situations... but not so with those of us from Europe, or, your closest neighbor to the North?
There are many answers (including socio-psychological ones; culture of Fear etc - listen to Gila Copter by The Revolting Cocks with Timothy Leary for a bit of an primer on that), but one of them is just how damn easy they are to get; legally AND illegally in the US (the notorious Gun Show loophole etc).
Sure, individual state bans are meaningless when there's no inter-state border conrtrol - the Connecticut ban was doomed to failure because the neighboring states stymied it with their lack of control, not because restrictions/bans are not effective. The assault weapon, semi-auto and handgun ban up here in Canada (not a full ban, mind, but if you want to have these it takes years of courses, exams, training and membership in a registered gun safety club) works. Sure, some of these weapons do exist on the black market, but they are rare and you never see them outside of the odd (like less than yearly) org crime incident. ... and I would point out that studies show 5that the noverwhelming majority of these are smuggled across the US border (so our heavy weapons problem would almost disapear along with yours if we harmonized gun laws at least somewhat, continentally). Moreover, I can go to a registered club and legally/safely shoot almost any gun I want (assuming they have one, which is a matter of business decision vs gov regulation) without any license or background check (though supervised by an instructor on a proper range), and I have (actually no full auto, but I have shot auto-disabled assault rifles). I know how to safely operate a semi and can shoot with one well, but don't own any firearms personally nor feel the need. I do not feel that my freedom is being restricted because I can hunt (you can buy a shotgun or bolt action rifle in Canadian Tire hardware stores just not inner city ones, which again is a biz decision vs regulation; they used to stock them when I was small but they just weren't selling). Any honest experienced hunter will tell you that you don't usually get more than one shot anyway... unless you're spray and praying into a herd of, for all intents and purposes, corralled beasts at some of those "sportsman's" resorts.... we already have the advantage of firepower (you don't need auto to hunt unless you just plain suck at it, and even then it doesn't help with a real hunt) or sport shoot restricted arms any time I want - but safely (and safety here includes my personal, as well as societal).
I've had mugging attempts, and so have many of my friends. Nobody ever saw a gun (or felt one was implied).
Oh, and FYI, I live down the street from the most notorious and crime-infected public housing project in Toronto. I bike right through it daily. Also I'm across the street from a lesser-known and smaller but (until the redevelopment a year ago) just as bad one. Shots have been fired. Revolvers and shotguns mostly, occassional semi handgun. Always killing their own (cause otherwise the cops come down on the whole project and everyone gets busted... kinda racist/classist, but effective). I also used to be a Dickie Dee boy (those guys with a trike with a cooler on the front, ringing a bell to let the gangsters know that there's money and ice cream available) in the hood, which was scary as shit. No guns. Few close calls, but no guns.
I have been to Chicago. Yes, it's worse. Why is that? Again, part of it is cultural (the subtle unspoken segregation on the streets is very disconcerting to people not from there; it's like visible minorities are invisible to the rest of society - and I'm not the only person who thinks this about Chicago.... very differant from NYC or SF for example, which deal with race and cultural differences in their own ways), but gun regulations are definitely a part of it. Our ghettos don't have liquor and gun stores on every block (exaggeration, sure, but an actual thing said, if paraphrased here, by US social justice advocates).
... and I'm glad a few folks beat me to the whole religious vs secular society and mental health debates because, pardon the pun, goddamn (crusades, inquisition, honour killing, witchhunts war on terror, terror, and on the other side, forced medication, sterilization and worst of all lobotimization of historically misunderstood/disenfranchised groups such as lationos and aboriginals just because they were culturally different and therefore not normal which = insane). I say all this as a Catholic, not an anti-religion type. All the constitution wavers down in the US need to remember that Separation of Church and State is in there too, and for good dang reason.
