Hey Marc.  Thank you for posting your source so we could all see where it was coming from. Our founding fathers wrote that in the time of Cannon and Musket.  And I'd be quite comfortable with folks walking around with black powder muzzle loader muskets.  That way, the next time someone from one of our all too common neighborhood militias (Crips, Bloods, Skinheads, Sur 13's, etc.) decides to shoot randomly into a crowd at a club, they will have to drive around the block to reload and come back again. 

The law abiding gun owner is not my worry.  Charlton Hesston (God, rest his soul) never made me fear for my life.  I'm sure he had a good time shootin' cans and helping control the deer population.  But our firepower has WAY exceeded our BRAINPOWER.  Individually, folks are smart.  But in groups, they seem to get dumber.  Add the manly-man feel of GUNS and their brains shrink a bit more.  And the more rounds they fire per second, the greater the distance/accuracy...the more problems we have.

We're a violent species.  If I made the rules, we'd be without guns. Then at least, you'd have to get face to face with your victim or get really creative and...say, drop a piano on them.  Seems the only right thing to do.  But the practicality of getting all the guns locked up is pretty low. Plus, punishing folks like yourself who are not a threat to society and who play by the rules seems equally wrong. 

I think we're on the right track with harsh penalties for weapons violations and regulation of what kinds of guns we can have.  I would propose a "dumb gun owner penalty" however.  If a gun owner's house is broken into and they don't have their weapons secured to a certain standard and their gun enters the illegal weapons trade, they should be fined heavily. (along with a five year suspension of firearm privleges and they must be forced to wear a T-Shirt that reads, "My Gun May Have Killed Someone You Love. Kick Me!")

Aren't you glad I don't make the rules?

PRH