Do Guns Make Us Safer?

Oh, controversy.  Get thee behind me.  Yes, I know a lot of you are, shall we say, not completely of open mind about the issue of gun ownership, but I am, nevertheless, compelled to speak my mind on the subject.  I am myself a gun owner having a Browning 20 gauge secreted somewhere at my ranch.  I even have some shotgun shells around, but I can only find them when I have no use for them. A few years ago in a fit of excessive gun safety, I bought and installed a trigger guard, and promptly lost the key.  I’ve hunted off and on since the age of twelve, but not distinguished myself at it, and during my brief military career, I qualified, or at least shot, ...