"The more helpless you are the safer you are from criminals."

[MMI]

denuseri,

I do not take that as an invitation to reply, and if it was one, I cannot, because I do not and cannot know what you went through. I'm truly sorry that you had to endure such a horrific crime.

I'm sure that I don't hold the views I have expressed to encourage things like that, however, but if you blame the anti-gun lobby for what happened to you, then, as one of them, I apologise.

I do like America and Americans. That doesn't mean I have to approve of everything they do or say, nor does it prevent me from speaking frankly. Besides, I think there are enough liberal-minded Americans who support my point of view to demonstrate I am not anti-American. I just find the entrenched views of right-wing reactionaries distasteful.

I know I'm just as obstinate and most right-wing Americans will detest what I say, but, so long as we don't draw weapons on each other, the argument is healthy and makes us justify our own points of view to ourselves, even if we have no hope of changing each other's minds.

We might just persuade the waverers.