michaelr: I do not know who you mean by "our gun-totin' friends." If it's me, I toted a gun once and was willing to die for you although I didn't know you or that I was willing to do so at the time. It just would have happened.

I no longer have rifles, but I have access to some. What I am not is afraid of rifles or people who carry them, unless they are my enemy.

The gun-totin' people I know tote them, they use them for the procurement of food and don't and likely wouldn't know how to shoot a person. The thought is always how to save the most meat, and shot meat tastes like shit.

For some reason this NRA crap raises its head now and then and folks go all nutso. Look, you likely have a hammer. You use it to drive nails. When you decide to use it to drive your neighbour it becomes a weapon. Until then, it's just a hammer.