I am only going to answer two points on this one.

Quote Originally Posted by matthewspatrick
OK, I got a bit ranty at the end there. Anyway, envigorating debate, Bob. I do not expect to win you over, but I do hope that you can see that people like Zack and I are not raving lunatics just because we think it is OK if people own guns.
I do not, never have thought that Zack or you are raving lunatics, just because you disagree with me, even if you are wrong .

What I worry about, besides the obvious number of deaths (and Zack, a suicide is a wasted life, how can you say what you said, that makes me almost weep) is what happens to people like Zack when they do use that weapon, and they kill someone


Quote Originally Posted by matthewspatrick
And I do have to ask... The US has had in the ballpark of 30k gun fatalities a year lately. The same figure for car-related deaths is 150% of that--about 45k a year, give or take. Why do you not vent your spleen against the carnage on the roads?
I agree to an extent, but driving is controlled. You have to pass a test, you have to have a license, it can be withdrawn just for using that weapon badly, let alone if you kill someone with it.

The problem with driving IMO is that the test is too easy, the laws are not strictly enforced, and again the citizens consider it a right, not a privilege. And I will rant about cars, especially petrol heads, but Zack didn't claim to be one of those in the post that provoked my response, he said he liked firearms.