In the end, after most of the shoddy rhetoric has been kicked to the cub, you're left with the 2nd Amendment. I'm not gonna bother quoting it, but the debate itself revolves who the amendment says has the right to bear arms, the nature of the arms, and how that right is fulfilled. I'm sure there's more, much more, than those three issues, but these are ubiquitous.
How you read the 2nd Amendment is often determined by judicial philosophy--at least for judges and lawyer types. As for me, when it comes down to it, I just don't see how regulation infringes upon one's 2nd Amendment rights. Nor do I see how banning particular kinds of guns does this, when citizens still can make a purchase from a wide variety of legal fire arms. I don't understand why the process of owning a gun isn't like the process of acquiring a driver's license. You begin to learn, then you get a permit, you learn some more, then you get a license. This would foster responsible gun ownership and emphasize the point that a gun isn't magic, it's a powerful tool, and owning one means understanding what it can do. Yet, if I suggested this on a right wing blog I'd be tarred and feathered. I'm a genuine survivor of sexual violence and torture, which was facilitated by the fact our attackers were armed with guns, and I STILL can't relate to the paranoia some gun owners feel about home invasions and robbers and blah blah blah. It doesn't matter how many lives are ruined, snuffed out all hail the holy gun. Sigh.
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