Does this imply that people are addicted to guns? That they would go to great lengths to create a black market to get their gun fix if they weren't produced and distributed legally?

Mike it's the 'in concert' bit that I'm struggling to understand. How do people come together and react socially in your vision of the world? Where does politics play a role if any? Does the state have any interim function to get us to your world view of liberty and haromony?

Mike I'm really curious as to what your 'inside out' existence looks like 'substantively' and materially. Unfortunately a dispassionate view of the world indicates that we are no more than sophisticated apes with guns throwing s**t at each other. What material circumstances allows this 'natural' self actualisation in a non-violent loving world of liberty? D'ya think that Chuck Heston shared your vision or was he just a macho mouthpiece for a perverse pressure group peddling the tools of death and violence?

There is no intellectual justification for owning a gun. Question why you need to have that shiny metal thing that goes bang and makes you feel powerful. Nice to squeeze off a few to release a bit of tension at the range after a tough week? While there a more guns than guitars and nutters like JT in the world it will remain a very dangerous place and parts of the US especially so. Death by gunshot in the US has been monetized and the real power is with those that profit from it - the manufacturers of guns and bullets.

People don't carry or own guns as a badge of liberty in the U.S or any other country. Linking gun ownership to some high ideal/constitutional necessity blinds you to the fact that death by gunshot has been monetized in the U.S.
Jim k - more guns in society = more crime committed involving guns. I don't know what you've been inhaling but I don't think it's gun smoke. Gun crime in the UK as a whole is relatively rare and about 50 or 60 per year are shot dead compared to 13 or 14 thousand in the US. I know where I'd rather get robbed!

On a hard day for my city allow me an emotional reaction. Bollocks! I think you get spiked on your own semantics. So there are sinful thoughts that are the subject of divine judgement but criminal deeds that are subject to secular intervention? Criminal thoughts lead to criminal actions. A particular tree grows from a particular seed. Freedom of expression the challenge of debate leads to a cross fertilisation of ideas and eventual understanding. I prefer this secular vision rather than your religious intractable sin silo's.

Often said that offence is taken not given. I'd rather allow a platform to openly debate thoughts and ideas that form their basis so that they can be challenged appropriately. There may be no such thing as crimes of thought but there are thoughts that are criminal.

Who's 'nature's God' ? Mike Norwalk

I think what Ghandi is referring to here in reference to honour is attitude in relation to learning. As adults we should retain humility and acknowledge that we all have much to learn and that this is a life long practice on the path to self realisation. Ghandi's humility and respect for all is predicated on the fact that we all have things to learn from each other - true liberty of mind and spirit Mr De Groot.

obscene wealth and abject poverty are both abominable. It is the political responsibility of the majority to reduce the impact of both extremes.

That one of your 'founding fathers' would refer to other human beings as parasites is appalling and legitimises discrimination.
For your information Nancy OH, the 'founding fathers' were much influenced by Europe and Europeans and well founded principles in documents such as the Magna Carta which is described as the corner stone of the American constitution. Your founding fathers were not original or even independent thinkers.

So, slave owner and plagiarist - that knocks some of the sheen off.

Richard Rumbold, Cromwellian, parliamentarian and officer in the new model army who was executed in 1695 for his part in the Rye House conspiracy to overthrow James the 2nd said prior to his execution: "I may say this is a deluded generation, veiled with ignorance, that tho popery and slavery be riding in upon them, do not perceive it, though I am sure there was no man born marked of God above another, for no one comes into this world with a saddle on his back, neither any booted and spurred to ride him" Think Mr Jefferson may have recycled this one.

Hilarious!!! "Free at the point of delivery" does not mean free of cost but that health care or more accurately, treatment for illness or injury, is pre funded by specific or general taxation.

I'm also wondering, after Mr Archer cuts off his nose to spite his face, who will stitch it back on for him? I'm also sure that the female readers of this post are comforted to know his views on unsupported childbirth.

Health care is a shared responsibility between government and the individual. Undoubtedly the individual has the responsibility to maintain their own health but similarly the state has a responsibility to provide services and sustain environments that promote health generally and treat illness and injury specifically.

The Canadian and UK National Health Service systems ensure that care is free at the point of delivery without prejudice. This type of collective universal system respects the clinician/patient relationship and keeps the question of money out of the treatment room. The person assessing your medical need should not be thinking about how much money they can make from the interaction or alternatively if the person they are treating can pay for it. In terms of overall costs of respective systems just take a look at the % of GDP spent on health care or the cost per capita. By any measure, the US spends about twice as much as the UK and Canada and still manages to marginalise significant numbers of its populace in terms of non or underinsurance.

Thieves! how many of the bankers - creators of unfair interest rates, irreducible debt and associated misery who's grasping and shortness of sight were solely responsible for the 2007 financial crises - are having to pay in any way for their actions? None that I know of. They have committed no crimes but their actions are totally immoral leaving many shackled to debt and misery - true slaves. I don't believe that Jesus was the son of God but I believe that he was a man of the people and of social justice.

Or if you're wealthy enough you can employ an accountant to 'avoid' paying taxes.

What else would you expect from a boarding school educated, tory imperialist who served as prime minister when children were still working in coal mines, cotton mills and sweeping chimneys.

State education should provide a high but minimum standard of education for all children who are not the sons and daughters of people wealthy enough to privately educate them or are in the position to home school them. Education and the protection of children is a national concern as all mothers and fathers are not responsible parents - sadly they are often irresponsible and abusive. Good state education where there is adequate funding and leadership is often the salvation of children who are the ones at risk of extortion and exploitation - not the parents.

Private = privilege in terms of education and is generally only accessible to the minority who can afford it to maintain the old boys network. Don't know about the US but Private schools in the UK are allowed to register as charities to avoid paying tax on the majority of the fees they charge - this is a national scandal. Chronic underinvestment in state education which is the real problem is then excused as failed ideology. A decent and universally accessible education is a basic human right which is denied to many in some of the worlds richest countries.

A decent education in a safe and nurturing environment is an inalienable right of any citizen of a country that calls itself civilized.

State education is here to stay but needs to get better. It should provide an acceptable standard that at least teaches kids basic literacy and numeracy and works with parents in an effort to improve the life of individuals and the communities they live in - just like they do in Japan Mr Archer. The problem with state education is chronic underinvestment and the lack of leadership. Combine this with a lack of understanding about the importance of early years support and the time a lot of kids get to school their stories are already written.

Preservation of a country they will recognise? Life is about change not preservation both individually and collectively. Change is inevitable. Change for the good or the better is a matter of judgement often clouded by historical misinterpretation. Is clinging to religiously inspired and partisan ideals of the past increasingly irrelevant in today's world. Yes it is.

That we're just socially programmed, sugar eating, fat monkeys with guns who kill our heroes and fail to recognise the true individuals in our midst is hard to disagree with. I'll be watching out for those killer pears though.

Following on from Mr Archer's point, " all ads "create an anxiety relievable by purchase" (David Foster Wallace) - non more so than ads promoted by blue chip drug companies who have cornered the market in making money out of anxiety. Who can you trust?