:-)

What bugged me about the Kirn article in particular is that I found it really compelling. It was really well-written and conveyed a lot of what it's like to be a gun owner, but it was *just* off enough tone-wise to leave one feeling creeped out rather than enlightened. I guess it's that unrealized potential that pissed me off so much.

They are doing these things *in your name* as a gun owner, whether or not you're a member, and this is contributing heavily to the caricaturing of all gun owners as "gun nuts" that you're reacting to. That doesn't justify those who are (I agree) unfairly or ignorantly participating in those caricatures, but I guess I'm just curious as to why those even slightly to your left on this issue (like Kirn) are getting under your skin so much more than those on your right?

I think you originally cast these posts as "helping gun control advocates persuade gun owners" but at this point it seems like you're just venting. If you do still have a constructive aim here, why not also try advising your fellow gun owners on some of the ways they're being marginalized by people like Wayne LaPierre who are supposed to be on their side?

For my part, I'm glad that the Arizona legislature has taken back from my own New Mexico legislature the proud mantle of the stupidest and most useless deliberative body in these United States.

I don't know how much pork-barrel spending is specific to the district rather than the state, but I bet that's a factor too.

As far as the governors go, I generally write it off to either terms being out of sync or people wanting different things from their national representatives and their local executives.

Far too many rapists get away with it, and that happens because we have no clue how to prevent rape or how to punish it effectively. It's easy to focus on the risky behavior, because we have some control over that. But it's harder to admit that risky behavior doesn't cause rape, and it's more difficult still to understand that most rapes happen to women wearing normal clothes, in relatively safe places, by people they already know. And we don't know why, and we don't know how to stop it.

I think people are okay with blaming the perpetrator because 1) They did it and 2) It is difficult to naturally understand someone else especially when they do really bad things. However, you are right in saying we should look beyond the crime and ask why it happened. Taking that step is important.

I also agree that placing full blame on someone, like an alcoholic who vandalizes, may not address the full issue, to a point. If that person is a repeat offender then they know, and have been told, that what they are doing is not acceptable and they are going against the social contract that keeps us from exploding into a messy wasteland….and they chose to ignore it. That person may be inhibited in fully grasping the seriousness of the condition, or have other reasons to not straighten up but that can't be a life long excuse.

I think a better analogy would say to compare the danger to a lion instead of the ocean. If I go walking out onto the plains of Africa, or even in a lion cage, people may say that I'm pretty stupid. They're not going to stand by and watch me get mauled though (if they have the means to stop it) because it's the lions nature to eat me. The lion doesn't know what it's doing is wrong. It's actually very natural, but that doesn't mean a damn thing if any person is in trouble. We're a society and we got that way by watching out for each other and that's what we do no matter how much danger that first person put themselves in.

I appreciate your healthy respect of firearms, and agree with your idea of becoming registered for certain classes of firearms. However with so many loopholes around current gun laws, such as the gun show loophole, how would this be employable? I think we need to make sense of the gun laws we already have, make sure they are realistic and enforceable, and begin enforcing them properly, before we go creating totally new laws.

Just my first reactions to you post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I also agree with your idea that there are not enough proactive policies in place when it comes to firearms. When incidents that are gun related do occur there is a knee jerk reaction to fix whatever the problem is so it never happens again. Short-sighted planning. I would also like to see better long term solutions enacted rather than emotional bans, and licensing may be the way to do it.