You've always been a most thoughtful poster, PK, and your thoughts on this topic continue that. Look, the cat is out of the bag, we're up to our eyeballs with firearms and I accept that. I do however sense that incremental improvements can probably be made but perhaps another day.

Understand though that there are studies that contradict your point about being safer with a gun than without one. I've read that a gun in the house is more likely to lead to suicide or to harm a loved one than it is to deter an armed criminal, and I'm sure there are studies to contradict that. I'm not looking to venture down the one study versus the other study route.

Your point about our catastrophic war on drugs is spot-on. So many lives have been lost due to firearms and mass incarceration. But we're up against the Prison Industrial Complex and some who simply will not yield to reason. I'm hopeful though given that the majority of the public agrees that marijuana should not be treated the same as harder drugs.

My overarching point, PK, the one I'd like Marc and his brethren to acknowledge, is that there is a steep price we are paying for having such an abundance of weaponry at our disposal. I think the far more restrictive policies of other western democracies make far more sense, but I recognize that that isn't going to happen here.

Peter T.