When I was 15 I was almost murdered. That's what I was told by another teenager who rode his rusty BMX bike to the McDonald's in my Pittsburgh neighborhood to confront me.

Jamar Thrasher.

"I'm going to kill your black a**!" he screamed, wobbling his bike between his legs. I chuckled, as I often do when another black person calls me black, because, well, they're black as well.

But I will tell you this much--- my laughter immediately stopped when this dirty-looking teenager lifted his shirt and exposed a gun handle.

Although his gun was as rusty as his BMX bike I was certain of three things: the gun was probably stolen, it had been used before, and it was probably in great working condition.

Fortunately, he did not live by the street credo that if you pull a gun you better use it. Because if you don't your victim will come back and use his gun on you. That is the mindset that killed basketball superstar Benji Wilson in Chicago.

And what affront did I owe that gun-toting, BMX bike riding teenager?

I told his 9-year-old sister to be quiet ("Can't you just shut up?" is the exact quote, I remember) and stop disrupting everyone else in McDonald's. She didn't like it, so she called her gun-toting older brother.

But in hindsight I now wonder how did that young man get a gun? Either he stole it, as I assumed, or he purchased it on the black market which exists all throughout America.

This got me to wondering and I realize now that guns are selfish and bring nothing productive to the conversation.

Therefore, civilian gun ownership should be banned.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2013 there were more than 11,000 deaths by firearms.

In 2015, there is absolutely no reason for someone who isn't a cop or a soldier to own a weapon.

What is the purpose? Are people really hunting quail at high rates? Do we really need to hide our husbands and wives?

Do we really live in that much fear?

And yes, there was a time when guns were not yet invented and people were still murdered.

But I guarantee, that if guns are outlawed, murders would decrease. Of course, there is evidence from a 2007 report by Harvard University that refutes my claim.

That study indicates that even with stricter gun laws homicide rates might not change much, but I beg to differ.

If gun ownership was tightly regulated there would be no gun-related deaths -- or there would be far fewer of them. It's as simple as that.

Gun ownership, as it stands is a constitutional right. But the United States Constitution is a working document and can be amended and revised as we see fit.

Changing the Second Amendment is tough. In Washington, D.C. and in Chicago laws proposing a city-wide ban were effectively put to rest by gun rights advocates.

Amending the constitution is a long and thorny process, which begins with cooperation between Congress or state legislatures and ends with 38 out of 50 states agreeing to the measure.

The last time the constitution was amended was in 1992, and that concerned the pay raises for members of Congress, and that discussion started in 1789.

I do not expect gun laws to change over night. Guns are part of our cultural fabric in America. But by holding on to our culture we are committing domestic atrocities. Americans are killing each other left and right and it makes no sense.

Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens claimed that he wanted to change language in the Second Amendment so that it would read: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms when serving in the Militia shall not be infringed."

Perhaps America can go the way of Australia where citizens must show a need that they need a gun?

And it is no surprise that legal guns in Harrisburg are stolen every year. And let's not forget straw purchasing. Right now, there is some sweet girl in Harrisburg with a smooth talking criminally-minded boyfriend who will take her father's gun and give it to him. It happens all the time.

To be fair, and to understand the issue further, when I worked as a business reporter in Upstate New York I enrolled in a gun owner's class sponsored by the National Rifle Association.

I did not own a gun, but I wanted to understand the mindset of legal gun owners. Most of the people in the class I would suspect, never had been threatened by a gun before.

The NRA firearm instructor wanted to change my mind about guns. He told me that I grew up in a rough part of Pittsburgh and I had been biased by those experiences.

Yes, he was right. I come from a neighborhood that's in close proximity to another Pittsburgh neighborhood that is so dangerous and violent that MSNBC Host Rachel Maddow had to come investigate and see if all the hoopla was true--- unfortunately, it was.

I took nothing away from that NRA class except a steady aim and a confirmed realization that some Americans just want guns because they want them, not because they need them.

I was almost killed in a McDonald's parking lot because I chided a child for misbehaving. Some people are shot coming home from work. Others are shot walking to their porches.

Everyone wants to complain about the violence in America, but no one wants to take steps to end it. Everyone wants to complain about the gun deaths, but we still want to own guns.

And who should own guns? Active duty police officers and active duty military personnel.

Other than that, we do not need to own guns. And yes, I am aware that the most persistent will find a way to maim or kill someone, but I am certain had that BMX bike riding teenager confronted me with a Louisville Slugger baseball bat, and not a gun, I would have been a bit more at ease.

And as Harrisburg Police Sgt. Gabriel Olivera affirmed, each gun taken off the street is one less shooting. And I'd take it a step further by concluding that each gun taken off the street is one less death.

There should be no more guns in Harrisburg--- period.

Jamar Thrasher, of Harrisburg, is a PennLive/Patriot-News columnist.