I'm not pretending that there is NO solution to it other than to continue down the same descending scale of violence, if that's what you mean.

Technology continually upgrades these 'force multipliers' until they basically have no meaning. Keep an Uzi at the house, and so the thief HAS to bring an AK-47? Keep an AK-47 at the house, and the thief has to bring a rocket propelled grenade? Keep a rocket propelled grenade at the house, and the thief has to bring a tank?

Where does it stop..?

Unfortunately, spalding, in the eyes of pretty much the rest of the civilized world, it is YOUR viewpoint that is the childish one, not mine. American media is obsessed with violence, with skewing news coverage to emphasize the crime that, in all honesty, doesn't represent anywhere NEAR the need for the response it gets. I know Michael Moore shoots himself in the foot a lot (figuratively... I'm sure the NRA would prefer it to be for real ) basically playing the same 'hype the message' game the American public is so used to these days, but Bowling for Columbine ought to be required watching, simply to demonstrate some of the nastier, dirtier, more shameful reasons Americans have allowed themselves to gaily trip down this path to Armageddon. Race hatred lies at the root of MANY of America's supposedly unsolvable problems. Gun violence, drug enforcement, urban sprawl and 'White flight', inequalities in education and opportunity... At least Obama's election has drug our dirty laundry out in the open again for a little while. Not that anyone's calling for the bleach

But you're right. Things are SO good, why should anyone try to make them better? I mean, it's not like we even CARE that gun murders are forty times less likely in the nation we cast off as oppressive all those years ago, is it?

That's an oppression I could live with... literally!