"...we are saying we cannot understand the US gun situation on the basis that the vast majority would, according to polls, have them banned..."

I am aware of the exact point you are making...(I'm not sure if it is a "vast" majority, but yes, the majority does favor severe restrictions on the sale, use and ownership of guns).

What *I* cannot understand is why YOU cannot understand that there is simply no way the majority can have a direct, national, binding vote on the issue.

I have gone over the Federal situation and the process for changing the situation several times, and rather than reply to the specific points, I get impassioned moral and psychological rejoinders, with sarcastic overtones, saying we are something like weak, lazy sheep for not just rising up and 'doing something'.

Even Rahere , : GUEST,Rahere - PM
Date: 22 Sep 14 - 06:56 AM.... who began with a very detailed point about constitutional law, has resorted to some sort of psycho-social exhortation, the exact point of which is lost on me.

------------------------------------------------------

I wonder if any Brits here have read "Opus 21" by Philip Wylie? It goes way back to 1949, but somewhere I have a copy. I wanted to quote one passage exactly, but can't find the book right now, so I will paraphrase:
The author/protagonist is having lunch with a friend in a restaurant, when there is a disturbance at the next table. The waiter is trying to mollify a ruddy-faced Englishman who has asked for a Baked Apple for dessert.
"But sir." says Fred, the waiter, "there are none... they are out of season."

"All I am asking for is a baked apple!," he replies, "I always have a baked apple when I come here... with cream! A baked apple with cream!"

"We really don't have any," replies Fred... trying to be diplomatic,"Perhaps one of the eating type apples could be found and baked..."

"Harrumph! So, I am not to have a baked apple!".....

at this point, the protagonist rises and goes over to the table, plants one shoe on the edge of the table, and spouts some sort of gruff nonsense syllables at the startled diner, then goes back his friend and remarks mildly about how he "has seen this sort of thing before", and how reason seems never to work....
-----------------------------------------------------------------

I sort of doubt that my metaphor will make any more inroads than Fred's explanation about baking apples being out of season... but a feller has to try....