Tucker,

I think you're being a little hard on our British friends overseas. Maybe I missed something, but I can't recall reading anthing by a Brit in this thread that was particularly confrontational or insulting. And believe it or not, even though they're only British, they're entitled to an opinion about gun control, too. In fact, opinions from people who are "outside" a situation can often be valuable. They can peer inside the "heat in the kitchen" without getting their glasses steamed up.

I'm also struck by a lot of your language. Things like "And you English want to tell us about Gun Control!" I'm American (actually only half, my father's East Indian, fresh off the boat), but I don't consider people from other countries as other than myself. And I don't think their opinions are worthless, even if this particular discussion has to do with the situation in America.

I'm also struck by your incessant looking to the past. Of course, we can learn from history. The Cold War taught me how short-sighted and stupid people can be. And I'm talking about BOTH SIDES of the Cold War coin. I don't know when this poor boy was hanged for steeling bread, but I don't think it was in the last couple of weeks. And I don't think it's bound to happen again any time soon. And if you want to look into the sordid history of a nation (and remain on the topic of hangings), why don't we think about lynchings in this country for a moment, and think about how recently those disgusting events have taken place. But then again, why can't we instead look to the future, and find a way to make sure these types of things don't happen again. Finger pointing and playing your-country's-worse-than-my-country isn't going to help anything.

Oh yeah, and disarm the world. :)

tomtom