Another opinion today!

My pal N responds to my recent posting about guns:

I wouldn't say I am on either side of this issue, I'm more somewhere in between. I think it is important that people can own weapons yet I do think they are too easy to obtain. When I first went hunting 3 years ago I just barely received gun safety, went into Gander, walked out 45 minutes later with a high-powered rifle already laser aligned. Now I think I was prepared to own a firearm but I don't think that a third party could conclude that which leaves it up to my word? Anybody can check the right boxes on the form. Now this isn't even looking at the different categories of firearms: 50 cals? Maybe if you are planning on shooting somebody through a building in self defense. Machine guns? Join the army.

We recently observed the murders at Virginia Tech, when an obviously deranged student was able to buy enough firepower to kill 32 people in a single morning, so his point about the lack of barriers is a sound one. And that's roughly the time of year when we also mark the Columbine murders, which seem to have been some kind of watershed in American killing spree history (an incomprehensibly ghoulish thought). Meanwhile, the gun lobby works to weaken the processes and protections to make sure any lost, deranged soul can either buy a gun from a dealer, steal it from their parents, or buy it from a neighbor--with no protections for the public.

Shoot, they'll let N have a rifle. How good an idea is that? OK, bad example... Licensed hunter, clean record, responsible enough to take a course on safety...

By the way, my boss is an enthusiastic hunter who shares that tradition with his sons. But it drives him a little crazy that I refer to his hunting guns as "weapons". I always say, "tell that to the elk...

CDs listened to today:

• Various Artists: Trojan Ska Box, disk 1
• Emma Lou Diemer: Concerto In One Movement For Piano
• Metric: Live It Out
• Steven Winteregg: Visions And Revelations
• Various Artists: Pop Ambient 2007