BUT NO, WE DON'T HAVE A GUN PROBLEM IN AMERICA

[Lizzie Poppet]

227. Why? Just look at most of the threads on this.

Emotions running high on both sides, with only a minority offering anything like a useful suggestion or observation. I appreciate you being an exception! I don't happen to agree with your proposal, but that's not the point. That you made it (and in a civil manner) is encouraging.

Personally, I'm concerned that our approach as a society to gun-related violence is going to be so strongly influenced by spree killings. Despite what seems like tremendous frequency, in reality they represent a very small fraction of firearms-related homicide. That doesn't mean that trying to curtail them isn't an important or valuable thing to do...but simple arithmetic would indicate that the priority should be elsewhere. As a society, we tend to be horribly blase' about "ordinary" murders. In part (and here at DU, it would be rare, I'd think), that dismissal occurs because these killings occur among "those people" - read: poor people, people with brown skin, etc. Too many people see news of another series of gang-related killings and "tsk tsk" to themselves before clicking through to the entertainment page. But when it happens to people who look like their neighbors or to (white) kids, it's OMG! SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!!!

Ah, well...I think I need to step away from the 'puter for a bit. This whole thing is depressing the hell out of me. Thanks for your civil, cogent reply.