I like weapons. According to the Marine Corps, I'm an expert shot with both a rifle and a pistol. I have enjoyed combining intent with attention to hit a target at various distances at the firing range. When I started having children in my home I decided that despite the locks and cabinets available to me that it would be safer if I let my weapons go.
Even when I owned weapons I did not own an assault weapon. Although I fired one in the Marine Corps, I could not think of a single valid reason to own one.
I have done research, and scanned the Internet and news stories for examples of brave homeowners saving their home from a squad, or company-sized gang of intruders armed with his assault rifles, banana clips and 2,000 rounds of ammunition.
I have not found a single example of an Alamo or Stonewall Jackson type of event where a person "stood his ground" against a hoard of intruders, and after the smoke cleared he stood defiantly in his home in a small mountain of spent shells among the stacked bodies of his evil foes.
What I have found, however, is time after soul-wrenching time, that one person with an assault weapon has killed a large number of innocent people, in a very short period of time, armed with weapons that were only meant for war.
This has to stop. Yes we have a constitutional right to bear arms. Yes we have a right to defend ourselves. The right to bear arms is not the question or the issue. In the same way that it is illegal for a person to own hand grenades, land mines, rocket launchers or laser-guided missiles, it is the same reason that a person should not be able to own a weapon that fires 900 rounds per minute.
The president may come out with a policy that restricts gun ownership, but I don't think any single act by the president can change anything. I don't think any gun-control laws can be passed for the people unless Americans' decide that it is in the peoples' best interest to do so. All of us: gun lovers, gun haters and all of those in between have to decide that individuals owning a weapon of mass destruction is not in America's best interest.