Another major school shooting today ... Newtown, Conn

Drewdad's analogy may have been absurdism but it was hardly a strawman since he dealt directly with LaPierre's argument. You on the other hand argued against an argument that DrewDad didn't make. That makes yours a strawman.

It seems you don't play well.

Haven't you noticed? Val has a very good imagination, and most of his responses are based on nothing more than what he sees. That's the reason why his arguments are strawman; nobody else even thought of what he comes out with. My imagination isn't that well developed.

Swiss people are able to own their own private weapons in addition to any weapons that the government issues to them, and a great many of them do so.

The problem in America which makes it different from Switzerland on the the subject of guns is the large illegal drug industry in America. Another big difference is its unique defense system consisting of all able males conscripted into a national militia of sorts with recruits continuing training intermittently through the years.
America can learn a lot from Switzerland. I'm ok with a program setup so that only responsible individuals are allowed to own fire arms, such as a license regime to own a gun, not just for concealed carry (so long as it doesn’t infringe on the right to keep and bear arms). I'm also ok with a program which requires individuals to take and pass a test, and mandatory training, intermittently throughout the years to keep the license for concealed carry or open carry.

The only surprise is, some people are surprised.

This is going to go on happening, again and again, in different ways, in different places.

Isn't it?

In Connecticut yet, where they have fairly strict gun laws.

Until everyone is running around with a gun, in body armor?

No; it is -- the same as traffic accidents

Maybe I could sum this up as follows: the USA could

1. Maintain the status quo,
2. Increase gun supply, or
3. Reduce gun supply

These options are

1. Intolerable, as evidenced this week and on many recent painful occasions.
2. Plainly crazy, ask any competent person.

and that leaves option 3.

see that the Pa Bureau of Education is having a special "pre New Year" get together to discuss, organize and create some ideas that adress one of the areas I had brought up in this thread, that being the "retrofitting of schools" with security entrances and perimeter surveillance. Thats a start.

So you would agree that the USA gets the same gun and weapon restricting laws as they've got in Switzerland?

This is from an official brochure (here copied from the issue, published by the canton [state] Basel-Landschaft [Basel-Country]). Though it's in German, you easily can guess what kind of weapons are forbidden to be owned in Switzerland:


You can get any of those weapons ["besides purchase as well: barter, donation, inheritance or loan"] only with a state or federal approval ... and have to give reasons why you want them, e.g. because it's used as a sports weapon or because you need it for your profession (knives).

Of course people have spent a century making cars safer, inventing countless things to make sure people survive accidents better and putting them on cars, establishing rules of the road so people know what to expect from other people, setting up penalties, which can be really punitive if you screw up to insure compliance, educating drivers more and more thoroughly, and banning you from the benefits if you screw up badly enough, not to mention requiring insurance to compensate others for damage you may cause them.