Pastor Killed in Ill. Church Shooting

@wislow Cars kill more people than handguns, by far, in fact cars kill more than any type of gun combined, ever.

"if I felt that my life was in danger, I would move away or buy a non lethal form of protection." The unfortunate reality is that your life is in danger every day. Any time you leave the house (and even if you don't!) you run the risk of being confronted by a violent criminal. Smaller towns are usually safer, but the very real possibility still exists. If/when you are confronted, you will not have time to go out and buy a tazer or pepper spray. If you are planning on using one of these, I hope you have already purchased it, and carry it with you. Tazers are a plausible option, assuming that you are only attacked by one person, you are in a situation where you can get away quickly, and the person is not wearing heavy clothing. However, tasers are not as non-lethal as the manufacturer would like to you believe (just look at the incidents of Police tazers killing people). Pepper spray is less effective, but you may be able to spray multiple attackers, which makes it better in some situations. Unfortunately, pepper spray does not keep someone with a gun from shooting you, or someone with a knife from slashing you. Nor does it have much effect on someone who is high on various drugs, such as PCP. Handguns are not the answer to all situations, and are actually not the answer in MOST situations. However, when your life is on the line, nothing is more effective. BTW, the guns that shoot "sandbags" are shotguns, which you may have at your disposal in a home defense situation, but almost certainly not when you are out somewhere. In any event, the beanbags usually only stun the criminal, and have many of the same drawbacks as the other forms of self protection mentioned above. When you have a gun, you may well still get killed (you may miss, you may not get to it in time, you may have a malfunction), but a well-prepared, and well-trained individual with the proper weapon has at least a good a chance as the criminal they are facing. Some would say that carrying a gun is akin to being afraid all of the time, and they won't live their lives in fear. Being armed does not mean that you are shaking when you leave the house, unable to face the world without your sidearm. If you drive with a seatbelt on, does that mean that you are driving in stark fear that each kilometer might be your last? No, you are simply utilizing a tool available to you to ensure your safety. In some situations, ensuring your safety may require that you take another's life. Thankfully, most will never be in that situation. I may carry my gun for the rest of my life and never need to use it outside of the range. I hope that is the case, but I refuse to bet my life (of the lives of my family members) on it. Guns make a lot of people nervous, and I can understand that. But at the end of the day, criminals will have guns and knives regardless of the legality. It should bring at least some comfort to know that some law-abiding citizens also carry, and may be there when you need them.

LOL, thanks

You have only moderate control (at best) of when you may need either a seatbelt or self defense. Sure, you can drive safely, not go out on new year's eve, not drive in the snow (depending on climate). All of these things could help minimize your risk, but you can't control everything, as you said. By that same token, you don't need to be walking down a dark alley at night do find your self in a self defense situation. You could be pumping gas somewhere and someone comes up on you, you could be walking back to your car with groceries. You could be at a fast food resturant eating a mael when the place gets robbed, or apparently you could be at church and some guy comes in and starts shooting people. The point with bringing up seatbelts is that they are both items that you can utilize, but that you may never need. When you find yourself needing them, it will be too late if you haven't already decided to utilize one. And just because you utilize one, it doesn't mean you are looking for trouble. You probably don't buckle your seatbelt with the intention of getting in a crash, just as a law-abiding citizen wouldn't carry a weapon with the intention of having to use it. For both items, if you find yourself needing one, you are not having a good day. Sure, there are limits to the analogy, but there are a lot of parallels, I think. Most people who wear their seat belts on any given day don't need one, and the vast majority of the people who carry guns won't need them either... but you might find yourself in that situation through no fault of your own.

Why would guns be used in crimes? Aren't they pretty much illegal? When guns are outlawed, the outlaws will still find guns.

This does not compute: "Why would guns be used in crimes? Aren't they pretty much illegal?"