Mick, if we ever hope to resolve this issue, we need the kind of clear-headedness that your posting demonstrates. Reasonable people may differ on exactly where we should draw the line on this question. That's okay with me -- I don't pretend to have all the answers either. But on the issue of gun control, we need people of good faith to work with each other, rather than against each other, to come up with workable solutions.

Some of these issues are difficult because a lot of us can see logic on both sides. In fact, I think this is true with respect to most of the big societal issues facing us -- gun control, abortion, drugs, the size of government, the environment, the Israelis vs. Palestinians, traditional folk music vs. singer/songwriters, etc. Unfortunately, ambivalence makes for lousy bumper stickers; and when you admit that there are good points on both sides of the debate, sometimes that makes you everyone's enemy. But I think that's the direction we all need to go in.