handguns

They're also rifles, not handguns - and it's handguns that are the problem in the US.

So does that mean that they don't catch about 400 handguns a month?

Hmmm, and modern handguns are designed and built to not unintentionally fire if dropped in normal circumstances, i.e.

And banning automatic rifles isn't going to do anything either, because it's handguns that do the dirty work.

But of course UK and Germany don't have millions of handguns laying around like the US does.

If you read the TSA blog you see they catch about 20 to 30 handguns per month.

Thinking about my acquaintances there are four kinds of people among them who carry automatic handguns.

Two-thirds of the US's annual homicides (about 12k total at the moment) are committed with handguns.

Most of those murders (~75%) are done with firearms, and most of those (>75%, can't recall exactly) are done with handguns.

A bit different from handguns that can be easily concealed while walking around the streets.

There are no guns (especially handguns) legal outside one's home or place of business.

I was recently at a music festival with some ~3000 people -- and a couple of police officers with handguns.

It's a bit puzzling to me that the American debate has focused on "assault rifles", which statistically seem much less of a problem than handguns.

> because it's handguns that do the dirty work I'd also like to point out that the Supreme Court of the United States of America affirmed that individual ownership of semi-automatic handguns (cited example, but, "common use" is the test) is a protected right.

The "threats" are classified (but really dangerous, ok, trust us, wink-wink) -- and no one's tried to explain how moving the handguns from lock-boxes in the police command cars to the hips of random patrol officers are supposed to help counter these "terror threats".

Handguns are only usable for killing human beings--that is absolutely true.