honestly, i am conflicted about gun control, though of course it is incompatible with my basic political orientation. but it's hard not to take the slaughter of schoolchildren seriously, for example. however, yang li expresses the reasons i am against it with great clarity and credibility, for example on yesterday's 'the story' (a public radio show). he was an activist in china in the tiananmen square era. like, say eastern european emigres of another era, he learned and earned his suspicion of state power the hard way.