Pro-gun people do not want a discussion of numbers, priorities, costs and losses. They do not want valid information as to whether people are safer with more guns around. Actually, it's been shown by the FBI that people are far less safe with guns around. But that's irrelevant. It's an emotional, hysterical issue for them and it doesn't matter if people are safer without guns. It just doesn't matter.

One poster even invents a "progressive religion" and single-mindedly creates it's "basic tenet" of wanting the government involved in every aspect of our lives in the context of regulating guns. Just to avoid a rational discussion.

And yet their self-perception is that of bright, logical people privy to information denied the average citizen which gives them a more accurate vision of reality. They would pass polygraph examinations on that. They really, really believe it. While at the same time there is a conscious effort to protect themselves from anything which contradicts their preconceptions.

A democracy relies upon accurate information. There are various movements which attempt to stifle that. What comes to mind are the old tobacco firms, the current anthropormorphic climate warming, the recent excuses for leading the country to war, and certainly the NRA. It's impossible to have a rational discussion with those who choose to live in a fairyland of their own creation, impervious to the scientific method. Experience. History. Learning.