I don't smoke, but I'll fight for your right to do so. I don't own a firearm - but I sure as hell will the day they are outlawed!

If we think Alcohol Prohibition created a huge class of lawbreakers, ie normal Americans perfectly willing to break and even laugh off the law - wait 'til firearms are outlawed. I promise you it would be the start of the second US Civil War.

I don't really fear that prohibition - I fear the slope opening that leads to it. I am afraid that pressure to regulate and legislate 'safety' or ownership requirements are disingenuous. There is no doubt in my mind that a government that wishes to oppress its population must first render it defensless. So a government like that of the USA, who face a population unwilling to give up their firearms must first apply the tourniquet of registration and regulation before it twists the tourniquet tighter and tighter. I think it's worth the fight; keep that damn tourniquet off my arm!

I just don't want to see one more personal freedom slip away. I don't know if it will happen, in my lifetime ... I hope it never happens ... and I don;t want to see it start.

Anyway - Mick, I don't suppose my comments were much for the 'bridging' notion you suggest - but at least I've stated where my side of the river is!