Speaker says on Dec. 16, 1971 he was in a restaurant with his wife. She was shot and killed by a man who was a paranoid schizophrenic with a long history of mental illness who had five handguns. The speaker prays no one listening has to go through such a horrendous trauma. His wife was alive and radiant one moment, and the next moment on the floor with her mouth and eyes open as if to say ?why me??. He says it isn?t fun to go to the movies anymore because of the violence depicted there, or to watch television. To be honest, he says, it really irritates him to think there even has to be a discussion on such an issue. Considering what?s happened in this country over the last five to ten years, the violence that we read in the newspapers, see on TV, the increasing violent crime in Minneapolis, 62 percent over last year, twenty five murders over a five month period, most by handgun, he thinks it would be quite obvious what has to be done. That is: to reduce easy availability to those unable to cope with society, and to severely punish those who commit crimes with firearms. He says we?re so concerned with violence in other parts of the world, such as Northern Ireland which had 350 killed over a five year period. Yet in the U.S. 50 people are shot to death each day by handgun, 500 or more are seriously wounded and disabled. He asks what?s wrong with a police permit or waiting period to obtain a handgun, or more stringent penalties against those who carry a concealed weapon without a permit or commit a crime with a firearm?