nicely-said, W.S., it is indeed shame that instead of looking for causes and trying to improve the situation in the US the attention is drawn to pointless debates. heh, i guess that goes to show you that despite our common recent history, there are a lot of issues to be dealt with.
"If we weren't around you'd all be speaking German"
^ was that really waved around? humpf...I guess that this is a time to be critical of the gun-control system in the US. I'm sure it will be a major campaign-issue next year, not as in 2004. I can partly understand the tradition of it, through readings, of course, but as long as it stays as it is, such incidents will continue to happen, no doubt about that. On the other hand, daily violence, murder and assault is perhaps less present in reality or (also possible) just in the media, where I'm from. People over here would fail to understand the American strong stance on self-defense. Gun licensing is limited to hunters (I own three guns) and professional users ( guards, different inspection services dealing with dangerous situation and so on) and is seen as a dangerous right to be too libertarian about. I myself undergo two yearly safety-controls each year, reguarding safe-guarding of guns and ammunition, and I've been familiar with a shot-gun from the age of 7, also on a sportsman quality. A comparison would not be extremly relevant. But I think that it's time the US gave it some serious thought.
I do not trust over 50% of my co-nationals to vote and a smaller percent to take care of their children. Those are fundamental rights which are not to be limited. But owning a gun and being allowed to use it in a rather superficially-defined context, that's too much for me. I myself would voice a lot of criticism what US policy is concerned. Gun-control is an internal US issue and needs to be dealt with accordingly.
That it sometimes looks like instead of reducing and preventing crimes from happening it allows them to take place and allow criminal tendencies to materialize in a very facile manner, that may be true. Sensational happenings (read shootings) will always bring about fiery debates when controversial issues are involved. If Americans still think and feel that owning a gun on a large social scale still tells them that they are Americans and it defines their identity, so be it, although
over 2oo million guns in civilian hands sounds scarry. If we, Europeans, wonder, how on earth America is very strong about the censorship of sexual nudity and (sometimes light) profanity, but promotes the guns-culture, bloody shootings and all the baggage, that's also explainable, as back in the Old World we see things differently and nuanced according to regional identity. I'm sure that's the case even within the US.
What we shouldn't forget is that, in the end, it is about the people and our next and such happenings should bring us together.