In reply to this tragic day,...Let our hearts and prayers go out to those in Newtown Ct. tonight and the families who lost loved ones. I can not for the life of me begin to imagine the pain those families are going through. I stayed quit tonight just to see the varied reactions that would be sure to be made. The amount of gun violence in this country is staggering. The attention that it is currently receiving is sad but nun the less deeply needed. I do not personally believe that a "assault weapon" type ban limiting the types of guns or magazine capacities would be the entire answer, if at all. All guns kill when someone takes up any firearm and points at a person with ill intent. It's my belief that it is the fervent gun culture that needs to be worked on most, along with help for some who are mentally or psychologically distraught. Background checks should be an obvious one, and perhaps a psychological qualification as part in obtaining a CCW, may be one consideration to be looked at, even though it would not have affected this case in particular.More guns on the street won't ,haven't and most likely never will be the answer. My argument to that judgement is, so far we haven't heard of anyone "takin'out the bad guy yet!". America isn't the wild wild west anymore and never was to the extent movies portrayed it and first person shooter games aren't any help. It's of my belief that some of the 1st person shooter games are desensitizing the youth in America but who am I , just throwing my two cents in. We live in an age where political discourse pushes fear and anger, and anger then leads to violence. Whether or not politics had anything to do with the Newtown school shooting isn't fully known yet, though I believe it will have to be part of the answer, the question is will anyone in Washington be willing to stand up and do right by America in the face of NRA pressure. I'm by no means stating that OUR, YOURS, or MY guns should be taken away not by any means, but something must give. I am myself an avid gun enthusiast and enjoy the sport of competitive style shooting and hunting. However, their needs to be some type of reform in the atmosphere of Americas gun culture. I would personally like to call out the NRA to take the lead with their vast plethora knowledge on the subject listening for any changes on many of their stances. I just don't think that Mr. La Pierre is capable of a rational or sane sentence let alone a conversation so, I'm betting that won't happen. Next, to make things worse, in Michigan a bill has just been signed permitting CPL previously known as CCW owners to carry firearms in churches, stadiums, schools, daycare centers and etc.. It just leaves me BAFFLED that an elected official would actually put such a law in place. I'm not positive but I was told that other states are moving on similar bills. I'll not pretend to know all the answers, nor will I call on an intrusive rewording of our 2nd amendment rights,...but something needs to and must change to the extent that if someone suspects one is mentally incompetent of being a responsible gun owner that there is or would be some action that could be taken by concerned citizens before something this tragic ever happens again. The bottom line is we are all our brothers keeper, lets not be the keeper of lost souls... 

                                             Eric