Wow...reading about the racial situation in St. Louis, I thought Atlanta was bad. That was an eye-opener, kind of at odds with the wholesome image many hold of Midwesterners.

Turning to guns, I'm not against owning weapons, though I would agree that most normal people have no need or want for an assault weapon. I would also be interested to know - though it would be difficult if not impossible to calculate - how many guns kept for self-defense are ever needed and successfully used for that purpose. Very, very few would be my guess.

In this shooting, there were armed police officers there. Would an armed citizen have been able to stop the guy? Maybe, because obviously the guy knew the officers would be armed and acted accordingly. But this also sets up a situation where responding officers, not knowing the situation, could easily have shot a good samaritan by mistake. Cops get a little crazy when there are officers down.

Society's growing want for guns reminds me of my airline days, when obese people who smoke like chimneys and can't be bothered with wearing seatbelts would say, "I ain't gettin' on no airplane, that ain't safe!" :rolleyes:

If a thousand people die worldwide in commercial plane crashes, that's a bad year. About 1.3 million die annually worldwide from lung cancer; in the U.S., over 40,000 people die annually in car accidents and over 10,000 die in accidental falls. Where's the real danger?

Perception is everything, especially when it comes to risk. Usually people freak over things that really don't pose much of a threat while blowing off the real killers.

Many police officers go an entire career without ever firing their weapons. It may make people feel better to have a gun, but really, how likely is it that John Q. Public is ever really going to need one?