canoer, I too grew up in a household full of guns, with bullet holes in the venetian blinds to prove it. As a child was I scared? Yer damned right I was! And this was a household with a responsible "hunter" who taught his children to "respect" his weapons.

Did my brother and I bring our children up in a "household of guns" and in the same manner? No bloody way!

I too find the "culture of the gun" frightening Lizzie, despite the fact that some of its aspects are not foreign to me.

"I've seen the bullet and the damage done" with apologies to Neil Young.