You know what's weird? I agree completely with almost everything you say here :-) Really, I do. Ultimately it's not a problem with the guns; guns don't kill people, people do. And like I said in the post: gun ownership is deeply ingrained in American culture. However, the 2nd Amendment has never been used to protect states' freedom from the Federal government. It has never been used to quench civil uprising within states. Those reasons only were put to paper because the real reasons were racist; it were the southern states that pushed for this amendment. I've written a post about that last year in July which you can find here. You know what else is strange? I don't believe that any solution will be found by changing or adding laws. I believe it's a cultural problem more than anything else.

The changes proposed in the song I linked in this post will help a little, but they won't solve the problem by any means. It's a cultural problem. It's the "gun crowd" who post pictures of themselves on Facebook posing with an AR-15. It's the sticker on their car with a rifle and a text challenging people to "come and take it." It's the gun as a symbol of masculinity, rugged independence, heroism and everything else "freedom" has come to mean in America. The kids shooting other kids in schools solve whatever problem they have, be it being bullied or anything else, the way they've been taught to solve problems from their gun-touting parents and the media; with violence carrying that omnipresent symbol of true masculinity. Laws won't solve that. Here in Europe we have one country, Switzerland, where many people own guns. One could even say that Switzerland has a "gun culture" all of its own. And they have almost zero gun violence. Watch this video.

Lastly, think about this: the whole "law abiding citizen" argument is kind of silly, isn't it? At least when viewed in relation to the reasons on paper for the 2nd Amendment. If guns are really used to combat an overbearing government, the people in that uprising seize to be law abiding citizens, don't they? The 2nd amendment was, on paper at least, specifically included for citizens to not abide by the law of the government they oppose. In actual reality the right to bear arms was included to quench slave-revolts. Slaves and free black people weren't allowed to bear arms, remember?

It's a complicated and uniquely American problem which you and I won't solve posting about it. But if there's ever going to be a solution in the future, it starts here with Americans being educated and honest about their nation's history; something the GOP tries to prevent every chance they get, even to the point where they ban books that are too honest about it. And the GOP was the cause of the last time (one of only two times) that there was a threat of the 2nd Amendment being used for its intended purpose on paper; that was 6 January last year. So... I agree with your entire response, and I'm grateful for it. A simple change in laws or regulations won't solve anything, and a ban on guns will for sure only exacerbate the problem. But change is needed. Every little bit helps in wait for a much deeper and cultural change that's needed. So, please let me know when your post about the background checks is online; I'll be sure to read it.