I've decided that I want to come to an opinion about guns. Recently it was said in the PorcFest thread that many people were openly carrying guns. Should that make me nervous or not? I see both sides of the argument. On one hand, I wouldn't want to be walking down a shady alley in NYC and see lots of people with guns. On the other hand, a peaceful grandma carrying a gun for self-defense doesn't bother me. I'm obviously biased. Similarly, I like freedom (and live in the US) and would like the freedom to be able to defend myself using a gun. However, I don't think I'd like being shot, pepper-spray and other non-firearm self-defense methods work pretty well, etc.

I like to learn from history, so I'm leaning towards the "freedom"/NRA side of things (based on the second amendment), but the thought of some drunk angry person buying a gun and turning around to shoot up the town makes me want regulations... but what if I want to revolt against the government? Will the regulations prevent that?

This seems to be a worse situation than a "fine line;" the sides of the argument overlap, so there's no perfect place to be at.

Help!