2 parts: have you been affected by gun-violence and does that influence your stance on gun control?

Guns are fairly common in the west. I was shot at a couple of times while prospecting for gold as a teen in Arizona, but I didn't think anyone was actually trying to hit me with a bullet ---- I had just gotten too close to somebody else's diggings and someone was sending a message. On a couple of other occasions I was confronted by someone who threatened me with a gun, but the police intervened and the problem was taken care of.

One other incident occurred when I was working at Arizona State Hospital in the 70's. A teenager returned from a weekend home visit and the boy had stolen his father's .45 semi-automatic pistol. He used the stolen gun to shoot at a couple of staff members, but nobody was hit before he was dis-armed. It was just luck that nobody was injured. Gun control laws wouldn't have helped (stolen gun).

I have known a number of former psychiatric patients who were involved in shootings, but most of those people had stolen a gun from a relative and often the legal gun owner was the victim of gun violence.

I used to be pro-gun control because of all the gang violence and drive-by shootings in my area (L.A.), but now I don't believe gun control will work. In L.A. the gun-related violence is often perpetrated by ex-felons who cannot legally own a firearm anyway. The gangsters will always find guns to use when they want them.

I am more concerned with people who want to protect themselves and their families and I want them to be able to arm themselves if they want to. I think more teachers and school employees should be armed if they want to do so, but strict guidelines, training, and safety standards need to be established for that to be a realistic option.

Gun control already exists. It is just a flawed system. Case and point, the background check system. You give practically all of your personal info to the dealer who calls it into the federal government, who then says yes or no. The issue is that the laws regarding background checks have been ignored. Since the brady law was passed in the 90's there have been only 4 convictions for falsifying the form, when there should be 100,000+. It really is hard to find a positive to gun control. Registration just gives more power to the .gov, who then (and has done this several times of late) releases the list of owners/carriers to the media who prints it. Jon Bobsteve @ 1999 buick lane owns 1 shotgun 12 handguns and a rifle. Oddly enough, those places tend to get broken into shortly after. I guess an upside to gun control is that it will increase violent crime, which will fuel another firearm ownership surge. After all, the supreme court ruled that the police have no duty to protect an individual, just investigate the crime after the fact. Either way, thats not much of an upside. I'd rather just not have an increase in gun control, and have more people alive and well.

No.

Uncle/Cousin - Murdered in Chicago in 2000

Friend (Co-Worker) killed himself

The rest of the people I knew about I didn't really know, so I won't count that.

I'm a liberal person, but I think taking away guns is not the answer, I do think they should be harder to attain though. It should be at least as hard to get a Gun as it is to get a Drivers License.

I guess you could say I was influenced by non-gun violence. I was beat up as a kid all the time, so I know that the only way to defend myself realistically, is to be armed with a gun. I also served in two branches of the military over twenty years, so I guess I learned that I'd rather be armed and be able to defend myself than unarmed and defenseless.

well the military brothers were proudly serving, they signed up and are heros. otherwise, the gun damage is bs. i don't think americans should just accept that their children can be picked off by a bored teen when they go to work. that's a consequence of gun availability, so tax the hell out of them to go to protect schools, otherwise.... melt the guns, it's that simple.

and yes i was affected by gun violence, recently, when those toddlers were hosed down by an unstable teen. i have kids that age.

I have guns because the criminals will ALWAYS have them. And yes, I've had a handgun pointed at me by a thug.

Well I have had guns pulled on me a couple of times and I reacted with violence. Does that count?

Yes. No, it has not.