I am not going to take sides in this, because I am just a piano player (and please, no comments about "Shoot the Piano Player"!) and so somebody else generally does the talking and books the gigs.

The thing that I don't understand is why you all keep dredging this issue up again and again. Everyone justs gets mad and then gets madder, and says the same things. There are a few people who have walked away from this discussion group in disgust and even fear from the bad feelings that have poured out here. What is the point?

I would honestly be afraid to be in a room with people talking the way that you are talking here. Maybe some of you would have guns, but even the ones that are against guns sound like you wouldn't hestitate to draw blood with anything handy.

Maybe you don't have to read this thread if you don't want to, and maybe some people don't, but take it from me, a longtime lurker, a lot of people read this and don't say anything. Anyway, I don't see how you can just cut over to a thread about some old song without carrying the bad feelings with you, and without remembering that someone came close to threatening to shoot you in another thread.

I had music theory question, and I hate music theory, but there are a couple of people here who know their stuff and have patience with those of us that don't, so I sent a private post to one of them, only to be told that he was out and for good, because of some of this sort of stuff.

If I want to hear all the gun talk, I just turn on the TV or radio, or open the paper. But if I want to hear about music, there is only this one place, and it seems like pretty soon everybody worth talking to will be chased away.

JP