[Reticle]

As fo capital punishent, the idea of taking the persons life may not be pleasant, but if you don't, you take the risk of them escaping and killing someone else. Thinking strictly ideologically is great, but sometimes you really have to think practically. Same with guns. It's nice to think that the average person will never need to use a gun to defend themselves, their families, or their belongings, but a lot of them really will, and when that time comes, and they find themselves face to face with a criminal who could care less whether or not he kills them while perpetrating his crime, they're gonna be pretty damned pissed that they can't defend themselves. You may say, "Well, they won't have a gun, but the criminal won't either". That will, however, never be true, because you simply can't control all the millions of firearms that are out there.