Happiness is a warm Gun

An old family friend described the Sandy Hook killer as "comfortable with a firearm at the age of four".  Four!  What's with the complacency of the gun culture in America?  Four hundred million guns in circulation and this is normal?  Looking at it from my perch in Canada I find it confusing and mysterious.  Supporters say we need guns for protection.  Protection from whom?  The next door neighbour?  The old lady on the porch?  Postal carrier?  Bus driver?  Guy walking down the street?  To listen to the NRA, you'd think every second American is a crazed killer, robber or psychopath.  So the good guys only feel comfortable when they strap on the old 45 before walking out the front door into that big bad world.  Think this is a little over the top?  Well, just listen to the rhetoric of the gun lobby - no compromise, absolute constitutional right to own just about every destructive weapon known to man.  The debate will rage on forever.  But from my vantage point, there is only one natural conclusion:  the gun culture automatically leads to violence.  After all, guns are made for shooting.  Nothing more, nothing less.