[u crank]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Yeah, don't worry, I was.

But I really don't think that mainstream culture in general was as violent as it is now.

On a personal level perhaps not but then our awareness of it was limited in those pre-internet days. But in reality it was probably every bit as violent. Add to that a very different attitude about race, sexual orientation and views on gender equality and you've got a society that most younger people today couldn't contemplate. Talk about culture shock.

Perhaps as a society we have become so depressed after 9/11 that life carries less of the meaning that it once did?

Hmm...I really think that every generation could say that. Just from memory...In America, one President assassinated, one U.S. senator assassinated. The attempted assassination of a Presidential candidate. Two leaders of the Civil Rights movement assassinated. One hot war that killed 58,000 Americans and a million Vietnamese. Almost a nuclear war. American cities burning in race riots. Here in Canada we had politicians being kidnapped and murdered and you guys had that little thing going on in Northern Ireland. All that and the constant threat of nuclear annihilation. No wonder people were using drugs.

This, of course, brings us back to the problem of solving culture and society.

So clearly, banning firearms is not going to work, I can say that hand on heart that it is my firm belief that banning things will not work. Not once have I proposed banning firearms in America because I know how absolutely impossible such a thing would be.

I would agree completely. The only possibility for change is one of attitude. In my lifetime I have seen some remarkable changes in attitude in regards to other social issues. I see it in my adult children. Their attitudes towards all contentious issues such as race, gay rights, gender equality, etc. make me cringe when I think about what some of my attitudes were when I was their age. So there is hope.

I have always refrained from joining the discussion about guns for the simple reason that I don't see any possible solution. I don't own a gun so I can't understand that side of the argument and I see no practical way of taking guns away from those who shouldn't have them.

I like where I live.