Yes, your constitution ensures that an adult American citizen without a criminal record has the right to own a firearm.

But, don't you see that it's the handguns that cause all the problems because they lend themselves to concealment, and that suits the purposes of criminals so much better than rifles and shot guns.

A person can just as effectively protect their house and home with a shotgun than with a hand gun. Most criminals that break into houses are drug addicts who are just after valuables they can sell for money to get high. If they had a gun, they'd sell it to get money to get high sooner than get into a gun fight with some homeowner. If they have a gun, they probably don't have any bullets in it. In the USA, drug addicts will break into homes HOPING the homeowner doesn't have a gun, but it's a risk they take because they know that there's a good chance they're gonna live a short pointless life and die from an overdose anyhow, so why not take the risk? They are pathetic people that need clean injection sites and help to wean them off of hard drugs like heroin rather than people who need to be shot and killed. ANY firearm in the hands of the homeowner is gonna trump the nothing the burglar has on him, and generally the homeowner is sane, clean and sober, and that's a tremendous advantage over the burglar too.

Much of what I know about firearms comes from listening to Americans talk about them in forums like this. And, from what I've heard, I can see that there can be peace in your great nation between the pro and anti gun activists if only people would recognize that it's the hand guns that cause most of the problems. By allowing long guns, but not hand guns, there may be the opportunity for meaninful dialogue between the NRA and the so called bleeding heart liberals who've lost a loved one to a senseless shooting.

Your country could still muster a "well armed militia" if everyone who wanted a gun had a long gun, but you wouldn't be catering to the criminal element by providing them with easily concealed weapons in the form of hand guns.

And, no one needs an assault rifle to protect themselves, especially assault rifles that can easily be converted to work like machine guns.

It shouldn't be a pro-gun or anti-gun debate. It should be a pro or anti hand gun debate. Long guns aren't the problem (except in Sandy Hook, but that was, for all intents and purposes, an assault rifle).