I've no idea what a CCW permit is, no doubt it has something to do with gun ownership, assuming that's so it saddens me to think you like so many Americans take this subject so lightly, I hope you never find a reason to use it.

Bear with me it'll look as though I'm going off at a tangent I will be returning to the subject, anyway as follows.

I'm aware of the difference between the bad habit of smoking tobacco and owning a gun but I notice there has been quite a transformation in the area of smoking, we no longer see product placement in films, no advertising anywhere very little sponsorship, none of the old romantic settings where the faces of the lovers are seen in the light of a freshly struck match lighting the cigarette in our films any more.

I think it'll take a long time to eradicate gun ownership to the levels of here in England but a start could be made with a similar approach to the way advertising tobacco products has been sat upon and shut down such as the mentioned above product placement, macho posing with guns in all sorts of films, and then I'm exaggerating I know but to make a point,at the moment with so many otherwise quite good films we see guns as the answer to all problems I'm sure if your film industry was able to find a way to demonstrate an easier way to tie your shoelaces with the aid of a gun we'd soon be seeing this in an American film somewhere, I'm sure if some American film producer was to make a film about baby care he or she would find a way of including a gun in the story somewhere.

I don't know but I'd take a guess that there's a lot of N R A sponsorship in the American film industry pushing for the inclusion of guns and at the same time expecting them to be projected as heroically glamorous and highly desirable items to own and pose with.

I also believe there's a money side to guns with things like the N R A sponsoring a strong lobbying element in your legislature, I very much doubt that's all, anyway having said all of that lot ridding the media of all forms of gun promotion would be a good start, but watch out for the N R A hit men if you're involved in a campaign to do so.

Regards to you all, ippy

The essential difference so many keep missing between the USA and UK/Oz isn't really the 2nd Amendment. The key difference is those populations willingly gave up their firearms when the government called for that and our population strongly resists anything resembling gun confiscation and sweeping bans.

Most in the USA support better background checks and I think it's extremely odd we've never had legislation that only had background checks without more controversial initatives but most in the USA oppose mimicking the UK or OZ's sweeping bans and confiscation.

Of course I keep asking, why is restrictive legislaiton our main and usually the ONLY focus in decreasing gun violence? We don't fixate on other issues via restrictive legislaiton, we tried that with alcohol prohobition then a bit with drugs and quickly found out there are limitations to legislation so now we have a lot of education and PSA to change the culture around irresponsible drug and alcohol use....but continue thinking restrictive legislaiton should be our focus for gun violence???

Please notice, I'm not saying legislation has no utility. I am saying fixating on any one type of solution for any problem will give us limited efficacy.

The problem is putting the genie back in the bottle. I hope this country is as as pationate about keeping democracy as they are about keeping our guns. The Republican hold on to thier rights with one hand and play willy-nilly with them with the other. At the top it’s driven by greed and at the bottom by bigotry, with some crossover.