Hi Dr Dan:

My understanding is this is part of their national service, and on-going duty of citizenship thereafter, every home has a weapon. Please do enlighten me as to when it changed.

Ntl, that model is what Tom Jefferson envisioned regarding militias, as he wanted one of the Amendments of the Bill of Rights to outlaw any 'standing army'. Another was to outlaw corporatism, in the mercantile mode we still have today.

to y'all:

As to gun control generally, when are people going to recognize laws are for punishment, and they are not a preventive measure. Certainly gun controls are not, and there are decades of data to prove it. When are you anti gun nuts(hey, it's only fair if you can call 2nd Amendment supporters gun nuts) going to acknowledge that where 'concealed carry' laws have been enacted violent crime and gun related crime has decreased markedly, in the immediate short term and thereafter.

Y'know Ed and somebody else have a point to a degree. Perhaps the other 30 people wouldn't have died if the guy had another type of weapon but it's also true that guns are here to stay and one student/professor/janitor/whomever with a concealed weapon could have just as easily prevented this sneak attack.

AND, no matter where you look in the world where law abiding citizens have given up their guns, the criminals have not. Meaning, the nutters will always have a source to obtain one too.

Last, I want to reiterate that the campus is equipped with a loud speaker system, that was being used to some extent, and too, this remains a terrible tragedy that could have been minimized greatly by trusting people more than government(or the University, who has a no-weapons policy(which only worked out for the nutter)).

peaceably