Don't let the gun nuts frame the debate

[DanTex]

1. This pretty much covers all the bases. Great post.

Just to add: one of the main reasons that there is no "gun debate" anywhere except for the US is that the US serves as a shining example to the rest of the world of what happens when you don't have adequate gun control laws. So anyone in, say, the UK who tries to argue that they should move towards US-style gun laws will simply get laughed at.

The whole "gun rights" ideology is pretty much restricted to right-wing Americans. And for the most part, we are talking about old, white, male, right-wing Americans.

Nevertheless, one slight disagreement. It is worth pointing out, I think, if only for the sake of historical accuracy, that the second amendment was never meant to deal with private use of firearms, but it was instead about fielding a militia. The colonists had had a bad experience with the British army -- one of the main reasons for the "taxation without representation" that precipitated the revolution was because Britain needed to support its army. Still, as you point out, it doesn't really matter, because laws can be changed, and regardless of how right-wingers want to misread the constitution, what remains pretty clear is that the gun proliferation in US society is a bad thing, which is costing us tens of thousands of lives every year plus injuries, monetary damage, trauma, etc.