It is away from the reason for this message board - but I feel the need to write in response to your note. So here goes...

Guns don't kill people - but it sure makes it a hell-of-a-lot easier.

To say that "access to firearms isn't even in the slightest rational a cause" for what happened in Colorado is preposterous. Thousands of firearms are sold and resold every year without any control at all in this country. It is maddeningly obvious that this easy access allows some firearms to wind up in the hands of those who shouldn't have them. By what legitimate methods did these kids get their weapons? Should we not consider that it might have been too easy - given what actually happened in the real world (outside of the political lobbying and debate)?

As to firearm-ownership preventing tyranny? That's preposterous, too. Most democracies limit gun-ownership, yet they treat their citizens just fine. It is the political process and the fair application of the rule of law which preserves our freedom - not some implied threat that we'll shoot back at politicians if they try to subvert our will.

In Kosovo they DID have firearms - raided from the arms stocks of neighboring Albania. They DID have a defense militia, and yet they were overwhelmed by tanks and bombs and a thoroughly brutal house-to-house assault. The Kosovars will get their land back not because they had firearms, but because free governments will take it back for them in the name of justice.

As you might have noticed, I am a proponent of responsible firearm ownership and as such I can not accept your argument that the -whole- problem is -entirely- rooted with troubled people. Yes, troubled minds and tortured souls are a big part of the problem, and these people do need help. But the part you don't talk about bothers me: troubled people will use what is at hand when they choose to act out their anger. And what is too easily at hand for them are powerful firearms.

People will always try to kill each other and they will always figure out how to obtain illegal weapons to do it - but I can not find any moral basis for making this any easier than it has to be.

Let me propose to you what I always propose. Instead of debating with me, I challenge you to seek out a victim of gun violence. Make your argument with that person or their surviving relative. And listen to what they have to say. Then ask yourself if there is anything you could do to prevent such a thing happening in the future. That is a tangible way to make the world a better place.