How typical of someone from the left such as yourself Fat, with your snide comment about personal inadequacies. If you can't argue on the facts, then attack the messenger; typical...

In response to your message, the U.S. is in fact the leading western nation with the most gun deaths. As you've rightly pointed out, we far outstrip the rest of the Western nations in the world when it comes to deaths by guns. Please see the attached link to look at the statistics:

http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/...

What you may not be aware of is how many lifes are saved every year in the United States. Please see the attached link for a review of the most comprehensive study ever on gun use and self defense in the United States:

http://www.saf.org/LawReviews/KleckA...

In this study it was shown that guns were used over 2 1/2 million times each year in self defense in the United States. And just so you know, the authors of this exhaustive study were big anti-gun people before they started this study. By the time they were done with this study, they had completely changed their view on the subject. At least they had enough integrety to be honest with themselves and their research, and not let their pre-concieved personal biases cloud the truth before them.

In 2001 there were 29, 573 deaths by firearms in the U.S. See the attached link:

http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/...

Now, just on the subject of self-defense; just for arguments sake, let's say that not all of those 2 1/2 million instances of self-defense were life threatening. Let's say half were. Better yet, just to be extremely conservative in our estimates, let's say 10% of those 2 1/2 million times were truly life threatening. At that percentage, that's still 250,000 lives saved by the use of guns as opposed to the 29, 573 deaths by guns for an equivalent year. I think just on that arguement alone the numbers speak for themselves.

With an estimated 260 million guns currently in private hands in the US, (see attached link): http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/17... ; and with only 29, 573 deaths per year by guns; if you assume that only one gun was used per death, that means that out of 260 million weapons in private hands, only 29, 573 were used to kill someone. In other words, only .000113742 of the guns out there were used to kill someone, wether on purpose or accidently; which means that 99.99 percent were not used in a bad way. I think the good far outweigh the bad. It also shows you that guns in and of themselves are not bad, just the people who use them.

By the way, hunters in the U.S., (who use guns by the way); by buying hunting licenses, (of which a large portion of those proceeds go toward wildland preservation and habitat restoration), do more to restore and maintain our natural environment than any lefty protesting in a concrete jungle of a city ever could/would.

If anyone bothered to truly educate themselves on the facts they would see that if anything, all good people should have guns. If more guns were in the hands of good people, then the bad guys would be much more likely to think twice before committing a crime/assault. Not to mention that the good guys would outnumber the bad guys big time.

Here's a site that explains the historical and legal perspective of our right to own guns in the U.S.:

http://www.guncite.com/journals/gott...

You make fun of Sarah Palin for being a Life member of the NRA. The Godlike figure and darling of the left, President John F. Kennedy was a Life Member of the NRA. See the attached link:

http://www.nramemberscouncils.com/jf...

Guns are used for hunting; self-defense; target shooting; as a means to learn responsibility; for collecting and restoration as a hobby; even as as a means to defend ourselves against a foreign invader, or our own government, should it become tryanical.

And what are the arguments against guns? For one, people get killed by them every year. Another argument against guns is from people who are ignorant of guns and have an irrationale fear of them due to their ignorance. Oh, what else? I guess they are "scary", or something. You see where this emotional, irrationale line of thinking is heading...

In 2005, there were 42, 636 deaths by cars in the U.S.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_d...

Which by the way, far exceeds gun deaths for a given year. Does this make cars "bad"? Should we be "afraid" of cars? Were there 2 1/2 million instances where cars were used in self-defense to saves lives, prevent theft, and prevent rapes and murder? Hmmm...

I think I've made my point clearly. Outside of deaths by guns in the U.S., (which isn't a good thing), the pro's for having guns far outweight the cons.

The lefts position on guns is purely out of ignorance of guns, and their emotional response of fear to something that they choose not to educate themselves on and understand; thus my initial response to you Fat not to play your emotional victim card on us about something that you choose not to educate yourself on and understand.

The NRA absolutely opposed what happened at Columbine and was very sympathetic toward the victims and their families, as were any decent people in this country. The NRA was not the cause of what happened at Columbine. The NRA is about stringently enforcing existing gun laws and educating the public about guns, gun safety, and gun laws, so that among others things, things like Columbine don't happen. The NRA trains more police forces in the use of firearms and marksmanship than any other organization in the U.S., period. Historically in times of war, NRA instructors have supplemented military instructors in the training of our troops in the use of weapons and marksmanship. The NRA is absolutely part of the solution, not the problem. The NRA is not the boogy man.

Educate yourself my friend...

- 67GTO