I personally don't think the fact that existing laws are imperfect is a reason to not try to strengthen them, let alone to get rid of them altogether. That's insane, but that's the kind of thinking I keep getting from opponents of gun control.

And, while it was good that you were able to handle the situation in which a gun posed a threat to your little girl, that also isn't a good enough reason to not try to also strengthen the laws. It's not an either/or choice, we can have personal responsibility backed by strong laws; the carrot and the stick work better together than either separately.

If you'd been backed up by strong gun control laws when you went to confront the other mother, you'd have been in a stronger and safer position. And there would have been a mechanism by which your distraught and possibly self-destructive friend could have had the firearm taken away. That she had it in her purse seems to me like another reason to favor gun laws as protecting people like her; it shouldn't have been so easy.

Laws alone are not enough, but the tragic history of the last few years sure as hell demonstrates that personal responsibility alone isn't doing the job. I'm sick of hearing about "responsible gun owners" and "good guys with guns" when the exceptions are creating a Mississippi of blood. Maybe 97% of gun owners really are responsible, but so? That minority with unlimited access to heavy weaponry is slaughtering people, and they're just another criminal minority that needs to be reined in by law.