Didn't want to say anything, but good lord you just can't help it sometimes. I neither condone nor condemn owning guns. Would I like Lizzie (and my lovely family, friends and self) to be free of the fear of guns? You betcha! But that just ain't in the cards.

I believe someone used the words "Pandora's Box" before in this thread. The box is open - the guns are out there. Outlawing them doesn't make them go away. Can we control them better? The debate rages on and, once again, it runs in all the wrong directions. Humans need to learn to control themselves (and I'm not talking about mudcatters here, the self-control in this group is admirable). What if nobody felt the need to shoot anything? Or oppress anything? Or marginalize anything? We, as a species, will do and allow the most outrageous acts, justifying all the way. . .

It's religion, and economics, and nationalism, and all kinds of fear-driven weirdness that scares me - not Americans with guns (and I walk among them). It's not insame to own a gun; it's not insane to oppose gun ownership. And it's absolutely necessary to continue to talk about all of this uncomfortable stuff.

How do you stop people from killing each other? Refuse to do it yourself. Refuse to brutalize another human, physically, mentally, psychologically . . . Figure out what is really important to you and refuse to deny it to someone else. Itmay not seem like much, but it's a start.