EF,
Yes, my sister in Eugene is the Head Nurse in charge of the Triage unit at a hospital there. She has told me horror stories. The most heartbreaking stories involving children and how they got a hold of their parents guns; found them under mommy's pillow, in the nightstand, etc. It makes me sick to think of the suffering plain stupidity causes these kids. Other stories about teens and even younger taking dads pistol to school to teach someone (usually a bully in her experience) a lesson. Don't understand why people with guns don't keep the suckers locked up!! And I don't mean in a glass cabinet in the livingroom, I mean in a real gunsafe if there is anyone besides them with access to the house.
I had guns for years, ended up selling them to pay for the birth of my 17 year old (no insurance, long story). I used the shotguns to hunt with and shoot skeet. The semi-automatic rifles and the pistols were purely for target practice. I paid a trainer to teach me to shoot and handle my weapons safely and *never* used them around my minor kids. The ammo and the guns were in a fire proof reinforced steel gun safe which was bolted to the studs on two sides and the floor joists beneath. My shooting partner used to call it "The Bunker" and laughed at me but I was totally paranoid about something of mine getting into the wrong hands and took extreme precautions with them.
The way in which our 'Boys in Blue' are out gunned on the street, though, is another issue which is very disturbing. The "Boys" get a pistol and a shotgun, and the bad guys get armor piercing full-auto weapons that would scare off an alien invasion! That is so screwed up.
If the current laws were enforced it would help, but they are not. Perhaps writing new ones will help, perhaps not. Bottom line is that as long as there is money in weaponry it will be made and sold to anyone with the money to buy it. Sadly there are a lot of really stupid people with a lot of money.
J