Originally Posted by MacCool

There I must disagree. Owning a weapon is a huge responsibility. Not only do you have to find a secure place to store it, but you absolutely have to make sure that you know how it works, how to maintain it, how to use it, and most importantly when to use it. Statistically, it is still true that having a gun in the home makes you far more likely to injure yourself or friend/family than it is to use it to effectively to save your life. The only way to beat those odds are to get instruction, and practice with it regularly. And by instruction, I'm not talking about the the 4 hour permit-to-carry course most people have to take. I'm talking about additional courses afterward, and this is especially true if you're going to actually carry it on your person.

Do not believe, like so many Americans, that just buying a gun, bringing it home, and sticking it in your bedside table will automatically make you safer. If you don't train with it, real instruction, then the opposite will be true. The same is true IMHO if you just rely on your CCW course as all you need to make you an effective pistolero.