Susuto

MrJagil, then someone decides he wants a gun too (or any other lethal weapon for that matter) and makes one, empowering himself outside of the democratic decision. Then he uses it to kill a number of people before the democratically chosen gun owner has a chance to respond. In the end, sure, the bad guy will likely get caught and dealt with in some way, but that sure didn’t help the poor folks who were killed.

The problem with your utopia is that you misplace your trust. It’s very possible for anyone to come up with a lethal weapon, and it’s impossible for some other democratically chosen person to protect everyone at all times. Thus you cannot rely 100% on the democratically chosen person to save you from being killed. Ultimately, either the individual must rely on himself or he relies on some other system/device for protection. While you argue that a handgun is not the best method for individual protection, you fail to offer an equally effective alternative: relying on cops to keep you from being killed simply is not as effective as using a gun.