The bizarre thing about gun laws in America is the way they bend over backwards to assume that absolutely everybody is upstanding, stable, well trained, scrupulously careful, and interested solely in sport or self-defense -- in contrast to most other spheres of life, where we're fine with putting limits on everyone's freedom in order to keep the dumbasses from hurting the rest of us. Speed limits, BAC standards for DUI, fireworks laws in urban areas, restaurant inspections and licensing, etc etc etc -- in general Americans are okay with having some of our freedoms slightly curtailed in the interest of public safety, because we take for granted that there are idiots out there who will otherwise hurt us. But somehow not with guns.
Imagine a National Drivers' Association that worked tirelessly against speed limits, traffic lights, DUI laws, air bag and other safety regulations. ("If they impose a speed limit then the next step is to seize our cars!") Imagine they were powerful enough to make it happen. And when people died on the roads, they'd shrug their shoulders and say well, they weren't being responsible car owners; there's nothing we can do about bad driving. That's what the US gun lobby is right now. It's insane.
