Reply #103: Quite honestly...

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I remain unconvinced that there is a gun problem in this country at all.

I grew up in the 60's/early-70's. With the exception of the 1968 GCA, gun control laws were virtually non-existent. Easily obtaining a firearm back then would never have been a problem. But guess what?
No classmate that I knew of carried a handgun to school. No classmate ever resorted to using a firearm to settle a problem. I can't even recall of any disputes involving knives or other dangerous weapons
(and I attended city schools). We played the usual boyhood army games ("Combat" was one of my favorite shows... there was always an argument of who had to be the Germans). There was no "political correctness" run amok WRT allowing "children" to play with toy guns and act out their role playing.
We pummled the living shit out of each other at times, but after it was broken up there was seldom any
fatal retribution.

So, fast-forward about 20-30 years... gun laws are more prevalent (both at the federal and state level), but now instead of kids pointing toy cap guns at one another, we have kids toting cheap-ass handguns in their backpacks and putting a bullet into another kid over the slightest insult or put-down.

Something has changed in that time, and it's not the availability of firearms.

IMHO... I think kids (and a lot of society), has become immune to violence in general, and worse... glorifying it and practically making it respectable.

Look at who some of the supposed fucking heroes for kids are nowadays... college and pro-athletes with felony records. And when they get busted as a player instead of get deep-sixed from athletics and/or going to jail, the team issues a press release and they're back in the line-up.

And what's there to admire about or aspire to become a "gangsta" and profit from it by becoming the next "Snoop-Dog or "50 cent"?

While I would never be supportive of censorship, I really think what are kids are exposed to in terms of movies, music, TV and video games have a great deal to do with the "de-sensitizing" process. I mean, when you can walk into just about any mall in America and there's at least one store or kiosk with Tony Montana posters, t-shirts, memorabilia (there's even a fucking "Scarface" video game out now), something ain't right with the way we raise our kids and what they're taught.

As I stated in another post, I have no children; however I am well aware that it's not easy raising kids or being a parent. But, blaming guns, gun owners, the NRA, etc is... all they have to do is point their finger and say "hey, they're the ones responsible for this mess". It's soooo much easier that way instead of fixing their own problems.