A statesman is a dead politician, and God knows we need more statesmen.

As for Abe Lincoln, he was a pretty good shot. He tested fired several rifles right outside the White House during the Civil War. Nearly got himself arrested, too, for discharging firearms inside the city.

Today the name of the town [Dodge City] that flourished as a Texas cattle market from 1876 to 1885 is widely employed as a cultural metaphor for homicide, anarchy, and depravity. Yet only fifteen adults died violently in Dodge during its cowboy years. In two livestock seasons and probably a third, no adults died violently, and only once did the annual number reach as high as five.

But before becoming a cattle town Dodge had served as a center for the buffalo-hide trade. During its first year its governmental organization was tied up in court. Lacking formal law enforcement, Dodge suffered sixteen to nineteen violent deaths. By mid-1873, however, its county had been organized and a sheriff elected. Not until 1878 is another adult homicide known to have occurred. By then lawmen headquartered there consisted of a deputy U.S. marshal, a sheriff, an undersheriff, as many deputy sheriffs as needed, a city marshal, an assistant marshal, as many policemen as needed, and two town constables. This formidable deployment and the enforcement of gun control largely explain the low body count.

                   --Encyclopedia of the Great Plain (online)

Then there's this.

Like olddude, I fully support well-considered, equally applied, and well-enforced legal control of firearms ownership. Always have. It's safer for everyone. If half the money spent on scare tactics, not only in the US but around the world, were put into mental health we'd all be better off.