Happiness is a Warm Gun?

And thus the age old argument about gun control gets its cork popped again.

The NRA and other 2nd Amendment enthusiasts were respectfully quiet for a brief time.

But those of us who would like to see more stringent gun control (and I say "us" because this is the side of the argument on which I firmly plant both feet and dig in my heels) took to social media.

Of course we all expressed our profound grief and sympathy for the parents and other loved ones of the victims of the most recent gun tragedy.

And then we got on our collective soap boxes. 

My friend Christopher posted something on FB that suggested stricter regulations were in order. The time had come. Let's start simple. It is hardly an infringement on someone's right to bear arms to amend that right to include guns used for sport and personal self defense, and not military assault rifles and machine guns and other big clip, rapid-fire weapons of mass destruction.

Expecting rousing support, he posted this to FB.

I was among the first to chime in with my support - in the form of disdain for the people who, after something like this, or the Colorado theater shooting, take place, say something like "If just one of those movie patrons had been armed, this would not have happened" and suggest that that lone armed innocent, at that moment, in that dark, smokey, chaotic theater, would have had the presence of mind and clarity to have pulled out his own weapon, identified and then picked off that madman with a single silver bullet.

I assert that that is simple-minded drivel, and that the hearts and minds of homicidal maniacs are completely different from those of your average citizen who is carrying a weapon simply hoping to be able to protect what he loves.  Odds are, in Colorado, there was at least one other armed patron in the joint. And they did what we'd all do. They threw themselves on top of their dates/children/spouses/friends and attempted to avoid getting shot as they ran for cover.

You would not believe the s*** storm it started.