Alex Stone Dale, former cab driver, Manhattan NY (Republican)

I don’t own a gun because in New York it’s extremely illegal to own one.

One night back in 1987 I stopped in Times Square and picked up a carload of what the uncharitable would describe as 'thugs' around 3:00 a.m.

A carload meant four passengers – three in the back seat and one in the front seat. Most cab drivers wouldn’t stop to pick up four youths at that time - if they’d stop at all. (Back then cab drivers were twice as likely to die on the job as the distant number two-place job on the list – police.) A sense of humour helped.

I asked them where they were going and they said "Bushwick".

At the time the three worst neighborhoods in New York City were all in Brooklyn and they abutted each other in an unholy triangle: East New York, Bushwick and Brownsville.

“I’m only taking you on one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“That you all have guns. That neighborhood is dangerous as hell and there’s no way I’m dropping you all off there this late at night unless you can protect yourselves.”

When they were all done laughing I got to explain something to them that they hadn’t thought of.

“The only reason that Democrats push gun control is that nothing scares them more than the thought of a black man with a gun. All the loudest proponents of gun control laws either have ‘carry permits’ or they surround themselves with armed bodyguards. They don’t push gun control laws to keep guns out of their own hands – because they know that they’ll always be able to get them – they push gun control laws to keep guns out of your hands.

I’m a Republican. I want to see a gun in the hand of every African American in the entire country - including you."

Ernesto Haibi, US Army medic, Copperas Cove TX (Independent)

I have owned multiple guns my whole life and am an avid shooter.

Violent crime in America has dropped consistently for the past 16 years and there are more guns than ever. In Washington DC and New York where no guns are allowed, there are astronomical crime rates.

No one should fear a law-abiding citizen owning a gun just as no one should fear a sober man behind the wheel of a car.

Many say that you are more likely to have an accident with the gun than use it for defense. Every year in America there are about 500 accidental shootings. At the same time 1,500 children a year die drowning in five-gallon buckets. BAN BUCKETS.

Do this: in the next telephone directory place a "Y" next to all the gun owners and an "N" next to all the non-gun owners. After one year go back and see how many "Y's" were robbed.

A Secret Service agent once told me, "Guns cause crime like flies cause garbage." Crime is everywhere and will always be there. Society will always have degenerates that prey on the kindness or weakness of others. The least we can do for them, and ourselves, is give the chance for an ordinary citizen to defend himself from the vermin that every country has within it."

Linda Sharp, parenting writer, Austin TX (independent)

Sen. Barack Obama stated in the primaries that when people are frightened, they tend to "cling" to those things which make them feel more secure.

He spoke specifically of guns and religion.

Well, yes people do. Religion is clung to for comfort, as a rock on a stormy sea. Hell, how many churches across the land are filled on Sundays with people singing "I shall cling to the old rugged cross"?

As far as guns? Good lord, they cling so tightly I'm surprised the damned rifles still shoot straight.

My father was in the Air Force when I came along. Both my sister and I were born on an Air Force base. I remember growing up in a house filled with medals, trophies, ribbons - all of which bespoke the tremendous control my father wielded with a gun in his hands. He passed that knowledge, control, and respect for weapons down to my siblings and I.

I learned to hold a gun when I was five years old. And like holding a pair of scissors, I was instructed, in detail, as to the correct way to do so. Growing up, I held all manner of weaponry, from BB guns to rifles.

My siblings and I were not taught about them as a means to hunting game, but as a means of learning a discipline. I shot many a beer can right between the eyes as I practiced my marksmanship. I have been to firing ranges in my adult life.

I am able to hit the target as I was taught. I can plant myself as to absorb the tremendous force of the backfire which can take a less ready person off their feet. In amusement parks, I can easily win you a stuffed animal by shooting the laser at the targets.

But do I own a gun these days? No, I do not.

Could I? Of course. I live in Texas. I could not only own one, but get the permit to carry it on my person.

As my husband travels three weeks out of every four, I toy with the idea. After all, I am alone with our three daughters. But for now, I am content to "cling" to our home security system and a Pomeranian who will warn me if anyone even sets foot in the driveway.

Obama does not want to take guns away from the people who respect them and use them properly. He simply understands the gray area which currently exists allowing teenagers to cling to them and turn their high schools into shooting galleries.

And in those games there are no stuffed animals or winners."

Jim Wilkinson, business owner, Mercedes TX (Republican)

I am a gun owner. Our Constitution allows for individual gun ownership for good reason.

Here in Texas, as well as in other rural areas across the United States, guns are used for protection as well as sport.

Ninety-nine percent of gun owners use firearms responsibly. That's a far better average then those who drive cars.

Politicians who argue that citizens should no longer have the right to own a gun are ignorant at best.

We've all heard the cliche....if citizens were not allowed to have guns, then only criminals would have guns. In nearly every instance of gun violence....it takes a gun to end it."

Julissa Reynoso, attorney,New York (Democrat)

I grew up in the South Bronx in the 1980s New York City and I knew many people with guns (both legal and illegal).

The 1980s in New York City were the Wild Wild West.

My family didn't own a gun - although I am sure with the crime sweeping the Bronx those years, buying a gun crossed my father's mind.

We knew many neighbors that had fallen victim to gun violence. In fact, I, the summer before heading off to Harvard for college, was held up at gun point by a random, gun carrying druggie.

I was raised in the belly of the beast in New York City and I am convinced that a gun's' sole purpose is to cause harm.

Don't get me wrong. I am an attorney and understand the Second Amendment. But a full understanding of the intentions of the drafters of the Second Amendment is necessary to assess the Amendment's implementation.

At its core, the Amendment is supposed to protect citizens from the federal government's arbitrary imposition of a militia or military rule.

What are the chances of that happening - at least on U.S soil? Indeed, proponents of so called "gun rights" don't fully understand the Second Amendment or our current realities.