We don't live in Somalia or North Waziristan.

We do not live in a war zone.

We live in a civilized society.

Guns kill at a distance. Hammers don't.

Guns accidentally kill children who play War and Cops and Robbers and Cowboys and Indians with them. Hammers don't.

Guns kill innocent bystanders dozens or hundreds of feet away. Hammers don't.

http://www.afsp.org/...-b1135c3a70de1fda

Firearms and Suicide

- Although most gun owners reportedly keep a firearm in their home for "protection" or "self defense," 83 percent of gun-related deaths in these homes are the result of a suicide, often by someone other than the gun owner.

- Firearms are used in more suicides than homicides.

- Death by firearms is the fastest growing method of suicide.

- Firearms account for 50 percent of all suicides.

Fewer people would die if guns weren't in the home. Kurt Cobain and Freddy Prinze and Phil Hartman didn't die from hammers.

The US 2nd and 3rd Amendments were created in a time when there was a recent history of an occupying power being at war with us. When was the last time active duty soldiers wanted to quarter themselves in your home without your permission? When was the last time you and your able-bodied male neighbors were called up for militia duty?

If Obama and Cornyn and Gingrey and their cronies want to cart me off somewhere and throw away the key, nothing I can do is going to stop them. Guns in my home won't "protect me from tyranny".

Being an informed, rational, and sensible citizen (along with my similarly inclined neighbors) is what prevents tyranny.

Having a gun-as-a-weapon fetish is stupid and dangerous.

You can have the last word.

Cheers,
Scott.

I'm reluctant to say the country was more civil in some previous time because one could certainly point to the treatment of blacks, or Irish or Chinese immigrants, or native Americans, or Catholics, or Jews, or ... and say that society wasn't very civil to them then.

:-/

But compared to Somalia, I think we're doing much better.

Thanks.

Cheers,
Scott.