Here's my take on them.

Before I met crawdad, I would never have considered owning a gun. Never (even though my father had some of his own, but I didn't know about those until the first time crawdad came to visit me at my parent's house and my father pulled them out).

After I met crawdad, guns lost their scariness. Not entirely, of course, and it took time, but I have gotten more comfortable with them over the years. We have guns in our house. Eventually, I would like to get a gun safe (for their safety and ours), and a locking ammunition box elsewhere in the house.

Being around guns more has made me more comfortable with them. In addition, I took hunter's safety courses, learned the ways in which different guns work, and even learned how to shoot the different guns.

I'm a pretty good shot with a rifle, but am terrible with a shotgun. I'm still not 100% comfortable with guns, but I do not believe that they are so super scary any more.

As far as concealed carrying goes: I'm not sure how I feel about it. I know that police officers can carry their guns when they aren't on duty, and I know the difficulty that people have to go through in order to carry concealed (it is time and money invested). It isn't the people who are doing things legally that I am afraid of though - it is the people who are not.

That is kind of ironic.

It actually varies by state. In many states you pay a fee and get fingerprinted, if you have no felonies or outstanding warrants they can not deny you the permit. In my state I think it is $50 or so, I could probably stop by the cop shop after work and get one. Other states require some kind of actual training beforehand and/or have a test. At the extreme end are states like California and New York where only rich or "connected" people can get permits, I think there is at least one state still where there is no permit system and the only "civilians" who can legally carry are off-duty LEOs. There's a movement to deregulate concealed carry as much as possible, several states have proposed laws that would do away with the permit system entirely.

I should also mention that anything that is shot with the guns that crawdad owns is also eaten by us. I'm not for shooting creatures just for sport.

I am personally pro-gun. I'm not old enough to own handguns, and I have no use for rifles, so I don't own any. My father does own a few, and we go to the shooting range fairly regularly and squeeze off 50 or 100 rounds. I think that it is a good idea to keep a gun in the house for self defense. Studies have show that at least 40% buglers have avoided or hesitated breaking into a house for fear that the home owner is armed. While it won't stop someone who is serious about getting in your house, it will stop that petty criminals who are looking for an easy couple of bucks. And you never know, the zombie apocalypse could be tomorrow.
There are also many situations in which individuals need self defense. The obvious ones are off duty police, prison guards, court officials, DA's, etc, but there are others as well. Small business owners who work late and alone, for instance, can easily become victims. A person who works on the wrong side of town, especially in places like LA, have a need for self defense. My uncle works in the movie industry doing stunt rigging, and they often end up working in gang land for some reason or another, and he needs to protect himself because the gangs are all around and he stands out as a middle-class white guy.

That said, I do believe that people should be responsible with there guns. I think that they should be stored unloaded, and locked away, I believe that people should take safety and training courses, and I believe that there are some reasonable limits that can be placed on guns and their owners.

In California, to get a concealed weapons permit, you have to apply at your local police station, fill out the forms in the presence of a police officer, and get finger printed. They then run an extensive background check while you are subject to a waiting period. If are clean, you then have to take a safety course with 16-24 hours of instruction time, which many gun stores and shooting ranges offer. After completion, you get a cetificate which you turn in with another set of paper work, at which point you get the permit. The only problem with this is that sometimes a police department will deny you the permit, outside of the law, based and a value judgment.

There are also some restrictions on guns such as not being able to own a Desert Eagle, and a maximum of 10 rounds per magazine, which I think are all reasonable for self defense.

I think that Guns are wonderful to own and use. I have grown up around firearms and own a few myself. They provide a lot of entertainment as practice shooting and hunting are very enjoyable. Weapons also provide people with the ability to protect them self from people with horrible intentions. Imagine: if every woman was issued a handgun by the government and a concealed carry permit, would assaults and rapes drop? I understand this is not practical but the thought raises some interesting questions.

Guns provide a deterrent but also a form of comfort if you will. A person familiar with firearms may have the ability to change certain situations for the better.

Personally, I love shooting guns at a range (or in a canyon around where i live where it is a generally accepted practice). I own a lever-action 22. rifle (Henry Golden Boy, to those who might be interested) that I got for christmas (and I plan on getting more) but I've been around a shooting guns since I was at least 12. I think that it would be a good idea for everyone to go through a gun safety class of some sort, if anything to familiarize people with firearms who would otherwise never have the chance. Guns when properly cared for and used, are not dangerous at all. It's the idiots out there who think that it would be a good idea to be a badass and carry a 9mm in their pants who scare me.

So, in short, I am pro-gun. But in high violent crime-risk areas, something should be done. I'm not sure what that is, since gun laws keep honest people honest, and people who are going to carry one to do crime with, will do it anyway. I don't think total gun control is the answer though.