Sorry for the late reply, I've been sick as a dog for the last few days and am just catching up now!

Before I say anything further, I first want to say that I'm sorry you were threatened with rape/murder, but that I'm glad you never had to experience it. That is something that I would never wish on anyone. The fact that you had to suffer through the threat is something that I find abhorrent and wrong, and I hope that the perpetrators were eventually brought to justice.

I'm not denying anyone the ability to own a gun, but the privilege of owning and carrying an easily concealed deadly weapon is something that should be limited to very few, highly trained, and selected people who have a legitimate need. Those other than police officers who should be allowed to own and carry a handgun would be limited to those who are engaged in high-level VIP protection, and who do so with the explicit permission of their local authority. If you own a handgun and want to fire off a few rounds at the range, then go for it...but that gun stays at the range when you're done.

It is only when it comes to guns in the USA that people seem to believe that adding additional risk on top of a risk is an appropriate solution. When there is a risk (such as the one posed by guns), you take away that which is causing the risk, you don't add more of the risk.

While in this case there were some things that got missed, it is a lot harder to kill 17 people and injure dozens more with a knife. I'm not sure how to explain to the gun lobby in the USA that someone's right to own a weapon doesn't supersede another person's right to live. It is only in the USA that there's this far-out belief that the only solution to guns is more guns.

I'm legitimately at a loss here...