I wrote a while back

I'm not necessarily against one's right to own a gun (my family alone has three). Rather, I'm fed up with what I see every day. I've lived long enough now outside of the US to have lost that feeling that gun violence is just something that happens. When I see news of school shootings and university massacres -- or just watch CSI -- I'm watching with the knowledge that this kind of thing just doesn't happen in other developed countries. The last time I went home, people were noticeably more worried about the growing violence in our normally quiet neighborhood. This reached a climax when my teacher was murdered in the middle of the night in his car in front of multi-million dollar, historic houses that overlook the Ashley River.

I'm not against one's right to own a firearm, but I'm sick and tired of people acting like there shouldn't be much stricter controls on who is allowed to have them. For instance, certain things just don't make since -- as Robin Williams said -- "Why the hell does the NRA allow licensed hunters to have armor piercing bullets? Is there one big deer out there saying 'I'm ready for yo' ass!'"

I'm only writing this now because the news just mentioned another school shooting in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University. That makes six school shootings in the news just this week, along with one at the city hall in Kirkwood, Missouri. This doesn't happen in other industrialized countries.

Feb. 7:

A gunman opened fire at an Ohio school early Thursday wounding a teacher before fleeing the school, which was locked down, police said.

"It is a domestic (case)," Jackie Ramey, assistant to Portsmouth, Ohio's police chief, told AFP, adding police were pursuing the assailant who after fleeing the school was involved in a second shooting.

Feb. 8:

A woman shot and killed two female students and then herself in classroom at Louisiana Technical College, a vocational school in Baton Rouge, the Associated Press reports. Around 20 students were in the second-floor room during the shooting, which occurred about 8:30 a.m. Friday.

Feb. 12:

A feud between two high school students that began off campus culminated at a gym class Monday when one student shot the other twice, then handed the gun to a coach, saying, "It's over now," authorities said.

The victim, a 19-year-old senior, was in critical condition at a hospital, authorities said. The suspected shooter, 17-year-old sophomore Corneilous Cheers, was charged with attempted first-degree murder, reckless endangerment and carrying a gun on school property, said police spokeswoman Monique Martin.

Feb. 13:

A student at an Oxnard junior high school shot another classmate Tuesday in front of two dozen other students who were settling into their first-period English class, police said.

Feb. 14:

DeKalb County police and school officials are meeting today as part of a new anti-violence task force for the community around McNair High School, where two teenagers were shot in the last week in separate incidents near campus.

I don't think guns should be illegal. I agree with Mark (and George Orwell) about why guns are and should be legal.

Gun rights aren't about hunting. They're about the balance of power between the state and the individual. George Orwell wrote a great essay about how some weapons (such as muskets) were inherently libertarian, whereas others (such as tanks and aircraft carriers) are inherently authoritarian.