Reply #33: Yes. And at the risk of being a boor (through repetition)

[Simo 1939_1940]

allow me to once again post a link to an article wherein the author states exactly why much better than I could:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/07/04/881431/-Why-liberals-should-love-the-Second-Amendment

Included in my definition of a progressive:

A progressive is a person who is able to confront their own biases and modify/reverse their position as empirical evidence dictates. Along these lines, liberal Democratic criminologists James Wright, Peter Rossi and Gary Kleck would certainly meet the definition of progressive IMO. Originally, all suscribed to the idea that more guns must equal more gun crime - and reversed their positions when empirical evidence failed to support this notion.