[Joeaksa]

Jared,

Sorry to hear about your friend. That the criminals were trying to steal anything would be enough for a law abiding citizen to defend their lives and property. I truely hope that the police find the killer and put him in jail for life, or even better, an "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" would make sure that this does not happen to another family by eliminating this criminal from the food chain. People like this need to be eliminated from society.

Randy,

Completely agree. If there are no guns, then the criminals will use something else to threaten, extort and if necessary, hurt or kill innocent citizens, and they will always try to get the upper hand to do their dirty business. When we, the law abiding public, are not allowed to be at least on an equal par with the criminals, then we all will be victims unless their is a policeman stationed at every house in the country. This has been proven in every country in the world where the world has been made a "safer place" by the government when they took the public's ability to defend themselves by banning weapons.

Agree as well that this will be my last post on this thread as we will never convince others who feel that the police can and will be able to protect them at all times. I, like yourself, feel that I am safer being on an equal par with anyone threatening myself or my family and until the law enforcement is able to rid the criminals of each and every weapon in their possession, I will protect myself and my family with every tool at my disposal, be it a baseball bat or .45 auto.

Also hope that everyone remembers that this "gun crazy" mentality as it was called started in 1776 when we used these guns to free ourselves from the British, 1941 when we used the same guns to help stop the holocast in Germany and the "rape of Nanking" and take over of most of the Pacific by the Japanese. We lose more people every year in America due to drunk driving accidents than weapons yet I can almost guarantee that the vast majority of the people on this have at one time in the last few years driven a car after having a drink. We can all improve our lives and the world around us and focusing entirely on guns being "the problem" is shortsighted. Hope we will broaden our viewpoint and let the gun issue rest.

Joe