They didn't have boxcutters, either. Anyway, it's not exactly a red herring. He was contrasting the passiveness of other cases -- notably German Jews -- with Todd Beamer's spirit in refusing to go down without a fight. I don't know how good a parallel that is. That parallel if valid is not about guns but about the individual spirit.

I believe the marginal count you refer to is less about handguns than it is about dysfuncitonal people, a small per centage of whom resort to violence, some with guns. How many broken minds and lost souls are we willing to have in our society is probably a more central question. I certainly don't stand in favor of dissident Americans taking up arms against any government we have had so far in this country. IS there a line beyond which I would not be pushed? Probably, depending on circumstances, but don't ask me to say where it is because I do not know and the answer would have to be situational, not abstract, to have any meaning.

I personally prefer to be able to own a gun, should I ever feel the necessity was on me to do so. That would never (well, hardly ever) occur in the type of community I live in, although we have had a few murders over the last decade and once had a car bomb (right here in River City!)

The issue is not an easy one. And I have no pat position or answer to it. But I will say that I prefer not to have a gun by the exercise of choice. A choice I prefer to be trusted with as a conscious and free adult.

A