I'm from the UK where debates about guns don't exist.

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173. I'm for regulation, but understand the need for guns

One of the things that frustrates me in this argument is the Black-and-White thinking going on with either side.

I've talked to people in rural Arizona, and told them that I were living in the middle of nowhere, I would want to be armed, too.

But then I asked them to understand that I live near a huge city, and that easily available guns there have led to utter mayhem. People have shot each other over parking spaces they dug out of the snow. Little junior high girls have SHOT each other over boys. Gangbangers have careened through the business district, shooting at each other. Countless innocent children have been killed by as gangs attempt to completely obliterate each other (often with guns purchased in Virginia, where gun laws are even more lax).

You pile people on top of one another, and maybe you need different gun regulations there then you do when you're out in the middle of the countryside. But people in cities want to take guns from people who live miles from their neighbors, while people who live 30 miles from Tucson think everyone should be able to buy guns out of a machine in the 7-11 and high school kids should be able to carry at school.

honeycombe, I've been in your shoes in terms of having an intruder (who came in through a window, and I barely escaped through the front door and hid out across the hall with a neighbor) After which, my dad took me to the shooting range, and then offered me his handgun. Because I could envision a large number of situations where the gun would be more of a problem than a solution, I declined. But in another situation, (maybe where I had no neighbors to flee to), I may have accepted, so I completely get your motivation.