And I agree, Ol'ster...

No one should own a gun that he or she has no proficiency... This is where the NRA misses the point... Rather than being a large portion of the problem the NRA could be providing training to everyone and issuing certifications to people to own various guns... Too late now... Most people don't trust the NRA any more...

BTW, seein' as handguns main purpose is to shoot people folks who own them should be able to explain why they need a gun that has such a purpose...

Yo, bILL,

Yes, I would agree that for most of the US's history it has been aggressive but not always... The period following the Spanish American war there was a definite shift toward leaving people alone and only reluctantly entered into WW I... Then afterwards we pushed for the League of Nations as a means of avoiding any future wars... That didn't work out but we still weren't all that aggressive in the 1920s or even into the 1930s... So it's not a given that we are aggressive by nature... After two wars-of-choice we have another opportunity to tone down... The American people right now are busy fighting with one another but that won't last forever and I am optimistic that the US is moving toward a less, rather than more, aggressive period like we did 100 years ago...

B~