I'm not gonna wade in here too deep, and probably would have not posted at all except for the number of references to guns and "mentally ill."

First let me say that I have yet to hear an argument or read a statistic that suggests there is any real justification for handguns and semi-automatic weapons to be generally legal for most of us in the genral population to own. (Not that I have read a bunch of statistics about this issue.) Severely restrict the legal market for these types of guns, and the illegal availability will also be more restricted. I also am not aware of any information that suggests owning these types of guns makes most legal carriers of these guns safer. I don't think there is any evidence to suggest one is less likely to be assaulted or to have one's home broken into in the middle of the night because the aggressor believes the victim may be armed with a handgun or semi-automatic pistol or rifle.   I think it likely that an armed burglar or assailant is much more likely to shoot if s/he thinks there is some chance the potential victim might be armed with a handgun.

So, I have waded in long - but not deep at all:>)

I have no problem with hunting rifles and shotguns. And if protection is obviously needed, they are adequate deterents. If the protection is not obviously needed, then chances are a handgun is not going to be of much protective value anyway to someone suddenly accosted.

There are a very few people who are both obviously and chronically mentally ill and who also have a higher than normal potential to be dangerous to themselves or others if they have a gun of any type. That fact is, however, that the vast majority of deaths and injuries caused by gunshots, were not from guns, regardless of the kind of gun, in the hand of a person whose reality testing is so poor that they should not be held criminally accountable for their actions. Severely restrict legal access to handguns and semi-automatic rifles for everyone, and the "exceptional" restriction for that nebulous term "mental illness" that ought also be applied to single action hunting rifles can be much more clearly determined and defined.

Four antecdotes that shape my views follow:

1. In my early 20's I was living in the upstairs of a 2 unit apartment when I heard some one on the porch roof of the lower apartment, obviously intent on breaking into my abode. I did not have a gun. However, I yelled out that I had a rifle and if they did not jump off the roof and run immediately, I would shoot them. They lept for ground and ran as I was calling 911.

2. One year at the Coconut Grove Art Festival in Miami, we had problems with a drunk or high man who was harrassing a young woman we had hired to help in the booth who lived on a boat in the marina, and was acquainted with him. At one point he flashed a knife and threatened to return later with his friends when we were tearing down the booth. We notified security but they weren't much interested. When the show ended that night, I stood with a thirty-thirty hunting rifle cradled in my arms while my husband took down the booth and packed us up. The fellow and some friends did approach from a distance, I moved under the streetlight where the rifle could clearly be seen and stared at them. They left. They would not have seen a handgun until they themselves were close enough to have probably shot me if they were carrying pistols, but the hunting rifle was fully sufficient. No semi-automatic weapon was needed.

3. I was robbed at gunpoint in Durham, NC. If I had been carrying a pistol, or had made any move that would have given the robber reason to think I was reaching for a gun, I have no doubt I would have been shot.

4. In my very early 20's, I was on a camping trip with a fairly new boyfriend. He became extremely and irrationally angry, extremely verbally aggressive, and I greatly feared I was about to be assaulted. We were way up an isolated hollow, miles from human habitation. When he started running at me, I turned and ran for the truck, scrambling for the rifle he kept there. I was very frightened, but was headed for the gun thinking it would give me an element of control and power. I was not thinking my life was in danger. He was right behind me. He wrested the rifle from me, hit me, shoved me into the cab of the truck, and then drove around on dirt roads for hours, the gun pointed at my head, screaming at me. Don't get me wrong, I am in no way accountable for his behavior, but if I had not gone for the gun, the situation would not have esculated to the point it did. I was unprepared to handle or to use the gun, and made a very foolish decision in the midst of the drama.

5. Late one night, I was awakened when the light in my bedroom flashed on, and then off. From the night-light in the hall, I could see the outline of a male standing right beside my bed. He turned the light on again and I could see it was a teenager, and he looked somewhat shocked to see me. I yelled at him to get out and he turned and ran. I did not have a gun, but it would have done no good if I had. If he had come at me, there would have been no time to reach for it. He was literally inches from my head.

6. Ex-hubby always carried an unregistered handgun. It drove me nuts and was the cause of many arguments. He was adamant that he needed it as "insurance" if we were threatened. What it did, however, was cause a mad scramble anytime he got pulled over for a traffic violation.