Hell, I've even met people who own a handgun and don't even know the caliber bullet it fires.
Then you probably don't have to worry about them firing it much.
Most people I've met whose only interest in guns are handguns, want their world to be like one of the stupid video games they live in.
While far from an expert on video games the shooters tend to focus on long arms, those firearms with greater firepower and employed by armed forces both real and make believe. Not handguns.
I don't have a problem with handguns other than most aren't very practical or worth the money. However I do have a problem with states that just pass them out to anyone.
You want to protect your home get a shotgun,
You go on to say how you dislike handguns or easy access to them, but promote a shotgun.
You realize with a hacksaw your typical shotgun turns into a much more formidable concealable (enough for criminal use) illegal weapon than any pistol anywhere in the same price range.
What would you rather look down the barrel of in the hands of a criminal, a sawed-off short barrel shotgun, or his pistol?
12 gauge or a typical .22, .25, .380?
Anywhere handguns have been outlawed modified long guns soon fill the role.
Texas sold Maj. Hasan, a pistol that has a 20rd capacity, is known to have the capability to penetrate body armor, which he used to kill innocent people.
Many survived, and had he been using a long gun instead he probably would have been an even greater problem. Had he been using a more potent firearm fewer would have probably survived. Many of those killed took rounds to the head.
I don't really think that counts against handguns. The typical service rifle on base or similar from the store would have been far more dangerous, and just as easy for him to bring into the building he worked in on base.
The availability of the handgun in fact probably kept him from using explosives, or a more potent firearm.
Which do you prefer, suicide jihadi armed with a handgun, or a suicide bomb? Do you want to learn he is a threat when he detonates or when he starts firing his pistol?
Pass out those handguns!
Sometimes it is better when firearms are the path of least resistance and alternative methods are not pursued.
In NY he would have had to obtain 4 references and interview with an investigator, after a throughout investigation was done.
Ah that is great. A 2nd Amendment originally intended to deter tyranny from government subject to absolute governmental discretion.
Governments in the last 100 years killed more people than all known common criminals and thugs throughout all of recorded history. Your common thug may be the immediate concern, but governments will still be the primary concern and threat to freedom long after we are gone.
What would you do in your utopia free from handguns when local thug comes in armed with the shotgun he stole from your local hunter, and you have no handy concealable handgun. You certainly are not going about your day with a slung long gun.
The truth is comfortable convenient concealment throughout a day is more important to the good guys than to the bad guy who technically only needs to cover it up from the car to the store, or to your front door (if even then.)
The bad guys may choose to carry easily concealed firearms when available, but they certainly do not need them, and do better without them than the good guys.
