you forgot
3) always check if its loaded when its handed to you or before you hand it to somebody
Also, while the amount of guns in a society surely has something to do with the number of deaths by firearms, like Commissar/Chaplain James said is true, there are way to many other things that don't necessarily have practical uses that can kill people. Guns in the right hands won't kill anybody, just like a fork in the wrong hands will kill somebody.
Also, this is a overused quote, but ill use it:
"if you outlaw guns, then only outlaws will have guns."
There is some merit to that, there are way to many guns to hope to ever get them all back under government control, and most likely if guns were recalled then most of the typically law abiding citizens would be the first to turn them in, leaving, well, outlaws with them.
And I live in Alaska, while I disagree heartily with our subsistence program, if there is to be one, firearms are a necessity. How are you going to decide whether or not I need one, or may need one in the future? You can't so you can't regulate them in such a condition, at least not well. And from their its just not "fair" to everybody else for me to have a gun and them not too.
Handguns might be a different situation, but like I said, there are too many of them to all of a sudden try to take them back. They have their uses too, other then killing people.
No kid is really gonna accidentally blow his brains out with a bow, is he? It's no more dangerous than a knife.
knifes definitely don't kill people
. Ive seen more people accidently stabbed by a knife then I have seen shot with a gun.
MaterialDefender