Reply #191: MSM (heavily anti-gun) is always faster & precedes letters-to-eds.

[SteveM]

You don't get many "gun people" letters until main stream media runs its usual raft of anti-gun columnists, anti-gun editorials, and anti-gun studies. But your point is taken. "Guy thing?" There are now tens of millions of women who own firearms. In a sub-group, the number of women hunters has risen from around 3% 20 years ago to better than 10% now, the fastest-rising demographic within that community. The responses will probably deal with the differences between AK 47s and their AK clones; guess which one is semi-automatic? Some folks, I think not much more than 300,000, own fully-automatic weapons for collection purposes and because they enjoy shooting these weapons. They are heavily regulated and require full-auto owners to SUBJECT their residence to inspection.

Yes, people kill people.

Yes, children kill people. How does the death rate of children killed by guns stack up to death rates from other household sources (poisoning, drowning, falling, etc.)?

Gang members kill others. What is your point? What would you do?

Stricter background checks may have some value (esp. with regard to mental infirmity); but remember that in the South, literacy checks were given before one could vote. Guess how many blacks failed?

The best way to deal with a "mentality" is to find out more about folks who have guns; why they own them, the capabilities of a firearm, how they train (or not) their kids to safely use guns; why there are over many tens of millions of real Americans, and not some ethereal mentality. You will quickly learn that guns are not a "guy thing." I hope this helps.