The cliché: if they took our guns away, only criminals would have guns is too horrible. It would be unbearable to be defenseless against criminals who obviously would never surrender their arms.  

It is not as if we were unarmed to start with, there are millions of arms in the general public now. Most gun owners would concur with and support increased background checks, we already have them in California, but we are all scared of the pacifists outlawing our guns and making us all criminals.

Another cliché comes to mind, that that they would have to take my gun from my cold dead hands.  

Our police are not bodyguards, they investigate crime and bring criminals to justice, it is our own responsibility to defend ourselves within the limits of the law.  

Let’s not forget who creates these horrendous acts, people not firearms. Before guns, swords, bows, knives, and spears killed millions, and an unarmed and untrained populace made it easy for the bad guys.  

I would rather think of people as being mostly of good will, and trusting that we outnumber and outgun the bad guys.

So let’s not get carried away with emotion, we all sympathize and even empathize with the victims’ families and loved ones, but we must not get stampeded into making serious errors.  

Remember what the law did with prohibition and our present drug war, they created an outlaw industry that nurtures and makes an entire new set of wealthy law breakers.  

This would be a negative unintended consequence that none of us needs.

Dave Gebhard lives in Lakeport, Calif.