"When you look at the comparison of deaths from gun violence in the US compared to the rest of the planet you have to ask the question: is it worth it?"

Well, I don't think that is the relevant question because the answer is an obvious, no. Gun ownership here is a luxury for most people not a need and based on an archaic amendment that is not "holy or sacred" but was important for a young country that did not have a huge standing army built to defend it and required its own citizens to step up to that task. Idiots defend the second amendment with cries of forming militias and attacking the government and standing up to tyranny. The gun lobby is literally clown city. Most of them could not be more stupid but hey, they have a right to maintain and expose their stupidity at regular intervals and do so with pride. Nothing like a proud idiot.

"But as Peter said, "the cat is out of the bag" and we're pretty much stuck with this shitty normal."

Well, the first part of that is absolutely true. There are more guns than people in this country and there is no getting them all off the streets or getting them back. So, that part I would say is something we need to find better ways to cope with. We can run a program like Australia did and offer rewards to turn in guns with no questions asked. This would probably help a bit but a lot of gun owners love their guns more than their wives or children and want to be buried with them so they'll be keeping their guns because like a child and his teddy they need one to cuddle up with at night.

And despite the fact that Karl Rove says we need to repeal the 2nd amendment I do not think that is required. We need to put guns and gun ownership into the proper context and put it under the control of the correct people. We do this by declaring gun violence in the country a public health crisis...because that's what it is and the facts support this. We make gun ownership much more difficult to attain and maintain, keep a complete database of all gun owners and guns (sales of both weapons and ammunition), and have regular renewal procedures for keeping your license to own a gun.

Now the general cry when you do something like this is "You're going after law abiding gun owners!" but the answer to that is if you are a law abiding "good" gun owner then you have nothing to fear...so shut-up and play by these rules if you are such a "good" gun owner and we'll see how these new measures stack up. The NRA morons that don't even want us to study gun violence get to wear a muzzle while we do.

It is not some insurmountable problem and we don't have to repeal the 2nd Amendment and we don't have to take away everybody's guns. We just need to start dealing with this in an intelligent manner and make it mandatory that "good" gun owners and sellers and manufacturers comply. It is really pretty simple.