John, I am outraged against the government, the media, and all the things that seem to outrage people on all sides of this discussion, but a thought occurred to me while I was reading your post above. If it's true that guns are neutral objects (and ideally, they would be, I suppose), then so must be drugs. A physician friend of mine, in fact, argues strongly in favor of legalizing all drugs. He points out rightly that people who want drugs will get them anyway, and that most of the very serious social problems, including crime, associated with the drugs would just automatically disappear. The actual production cost of an ounce of pure cocaine is about $25. That same ounce, cut and packaged will bring about $10,000 on the street. So, a $500 a day habit becomes a $12 a day habit (at least the addicts would not have to commit nearly as many crimes to pay for it) and all the profit is gone for the dealers, as is the necessity of violent turf battles. If you can't assign a moral characteristic to a gun, then surely you cannot do the same to a molecule. You can get morphine in the hospital after a surgery, but if you buy it and use it for pleasure it becomes a moral issue? Doesn't add up for me, although I would not go quite as far as my MD friend. But the popular taste for violence as entertainment is another matter, much more pervasive, and much harder to solve. Any thoughts?

Chet W.