A few years after moving into the Philadelphia region from rural Pennsylvania, I started to look more closely at gun crimes, particularly homicides.  I've come to believe that a significant number of murders could be prevented by banning handguns.

That said, I don't think local, or even statewide, bans would be very effective.  The ban would have to be nationwide, and it would probably take a good 5-10 years before we realized a measurable impact.

While a handgun ban would not have saved the life of a Philadelphia police officer recently killed in the line of duty, the number of gun homicides committed with rifles and shotguns in my area is something less than 15%.  One simply cannot easily conceal larger weapons, and I think a handgun ban (given time for illegal weapons to be removed from circulation) would lead to many fewer deaths and injuries as a result of crimes not planned in advance.  Surely, armed robberies involving firearms would still occur, but I suspect crimes like the shooting death of a pizza delivery driver for $20 would be much more rare.

As a hunter in my younger years, I can say that the only good reason to use a handgun in that practice is if you have the use of only one arm.  Even then, partially disabled hunters with prosthetics and other aids like bi-pods can use rifles and shotguns very effectively from blinds and seated or prone positions.

As a handgun owner, I can think of no substantive reason to not ban them nationwide.  The weapon of choice for home defense is a shotgun.  Hunting is best done with longer barrels.  I believe the benefit to human life outweighs the enjoyment factor of target shooting.