The proliferation and availability of guns of all types, and the ammo for them, is an international disgrace. The Wild West was similar to what we are experiencing yet again, with every nut case walking around loaded to the gills and not afraid to use them. We are supposed to have advanced to a far more civilized society, one in which our interactions with each other are supposed to be far more polite and civil.
Yet what do we have? A national guns-rights org. that didn't even have the simple decency to cancel its annual conv. in Denver days after the Columbine shooting; this same org. that cries for guns on campuses days after 26 tiny school children are massacred; and that same scenario has been repeated by the NRA every single time a mass gun killing takes place. Absolutely no compromise, no discussion, just an intransigent stance against any form of middle ground at all.
A U.S. rep. is shot down in a parking lot by a nut case with a handgun with about a 32-round clip. What does the NRA do? Comes out and says, gee, what's wrong with a private citizen carrying a handgun with a 32-round clip? Seems quite legal and normal to us. Ten Amish children are massacred in their small school house, away from mainstream America. The NRA was right on it. Amazing. Stunning. Incredibly stupid.
 I don't want the NRA to go away. On the contrary, I'd like them to come to the discussion table and bring some common sense, and display some moral responsibility, and show some decorum and respect for the thousands who are and have been needlessly slaughtered annually in America.

I believe that citizens should own handguns, and shotguns, and rifles. I also believe there should be limits on such ownership. For "self-protection," the standard NRA mantra, a gun with more than six bullets simply isn't required. Assault rifles? Common sense says we leave those to the military and to law enforcement. How much weaponry does a half-competent hunter need to take down prey?

 I don't want to take anyone's guns away, or their right to own and use them. But we simply have got to have some limits on the types of gun ownership. You want to fire an assault rifle, an M-60, a grenade launcher? Fine. Go to your local friendly shooting range, rent one, and have at it.
The NRA stance is one of incredible stubbornness, as if the enemy was at the gate. Again, I don't want to take anyone's weapons away. I am in favor of restricting what people can own.

There are certainly other factors at work in the continuing decline of America: children raised in day care; uninvolved legal guardians; violent video games; an un-restrictive national media that prints anything and everything, exposing children today to far more than I ever knew existed when I was growing up; lousy court judges; a weak criminal justice system that favors the wealthy, and a national mental health care system in apparent total disarray.

 If you can't reply intelligently, I will fully understand. If you can't reply politely, don't bother. Thank you.