A lot of thoughtful messages here ~ I truly apprecite most of it.

There are many things I could comment upon or enlarge upon, but don't really know where to start.

Just for fun, let's consider one of those recently posted "18 points" by which right wings nuts condemn the straw man they call "liberalism":

"9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but PETA activists do.

Most hunters do not care about nature. They care about the availability of prey. Cheney shot his buddy while hunting for farm raised foul. PETA women don't care about nature. They care about animals they think of as human. PETA men care about impressing PETA women and getting laid."

I'd differ only by observing that most hunters DO care about nature, and I remember being surprised (pleasantly so) years ago upon learning that several groups of hunters in various localities had made common cause with the more bookish and indoorsy type of environmentalists, banding together in defense of wilderness, wetlands, etc. This coalition, which once seemed surprising to me, is alive and well and one of the more hopeful aspects of our society today.

I love the observation about PETA, though... ;^)

What scares me about the NRA is that, as lobbyists for arms manufacturers, they have a vested interest not only in protecting the legal availability of firearms (which I don't necessarily condemn), but also in promoting the production and sale of ammunition in the greatest possible quantities.

Allowing gangbangers easy access to automatic weapons and plenty of bullets, though background-check-free "gun shows" or whatever, maximizes the profits of the manufacturers without having the slightest effect upon "protecting the rights" either hunters or law-abiding security-conscious citizens. This aspect of the status quo, however, has a decidedly negative effect upon the public as a whole, insofar as we're all potential victims of "collateral damage" from gang violence. (And some of us, conceivably, might also be in danger of being shot on purpose, for that matter.)

Ho hum, just another example of how corporations rule, and how they manage to flimflam large numbers of citizens to support their objectives, regardless of whether the cause actually benefits the voters themselves.