Only in a perfect world...

There is no way humanly possible to hunt down each and every pistol ever made and sold in America...or to prevent someone from obtaining a gun illegally from outside the US and bringing it in. If a criminal wants a gun they are going to get one, and when they want touse it they will. If they know full well that others around them are not carrying guns the more likely they are to use it. I mean, come on, it really takes little effort to get what you want when you pull a gun on unarmed defenseless people. If guns were given to everyone over the age of 18 as a way to protect themselves it becomes a little harder to pull a gun and commit a crime. During the Cold War what was the biggest deterent to Russia from using nuclear weapons? The US and its nuclear arsenal. Why did Russia try and put nuclear weapons in Cuba right in our backyard? Because the US had nuclear weapons in Turkey...Russia's back yard.

My take on having a pistol is this. I would rather carry a gun and never have the need to use it than to be cought in a situation where I need one and am now up $hits creek. There are too many twisted and sick individuals that can acquire a gun all to easily and they are the ones that use them.