The rural part of America that I'm from borders Canada and has a similar dynamic: A bunch of gun ownership, a high ratio of long guns to handguns, and almost no gun crime.

Against a home intruder? I guess if putting stray .223 rounds through the walls is an "advantage." I mean, if I ever had to repel a platoon-sized group trying to swarm my house, then maybe I'd wish I owned an AR-15 with 30-round mags, but I don't really plan for that contingency.

Nailed it.

Where do I suggest it does? I certainly don't believe that it does.

Cappadocius nailed my point in his reply.

I agree completely. The big argument of the NRA types against this is "If the government has a list, they can use it to confiscate everyone's guns someday!"

The notion of home defense isn't reducible to hypothetical home invasions. If that was one's concern then yes, you'd have to keep a loaded gun immediately accessible at all times. Like a paranoiac.

It's the defining of "assault rifles" that gets tricky. The last time we did that it was based on cosmetic definitions, which was pretty silly. If you base it on a mechanical criteria…if, for example, you decide that any semi-automatic weapon should be illegal to possess, then you've just tried to ban one of the…

Oh, OK then. The South has just been voting for Republicans since '68 because they're just so darned concerned about the racism of the Democratic Party.

Wait, no reasonable gun owners allowed! We're ruining the narrative! Put your Duck Dynasty shirt back on and make statements about your "cold, dead hands" post-haste!

It's even infected liberal Americans.

"They don't allow you to have bees in here."

At least in GTA V, you could also be some black asshole killing random civilians. King's dream is coming true!

Of course! I mean, he seems to he in favor of having money, and I also like having money. Just pointing out that an uncurious anti-immigrant political and economic naif is reflexively in favor of the Leave campaign. Funny, that.

That's why all of our elections hinge on Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania: They're the only states on that list that are remotely "swing" states. Of course, this year could upset some (more) long-standing traditions. And Texas will be a purple state by the 2024 election.

Judging by this sentence,

I'm embarrassed to admit that I did the math after typing that comment, and found one could attain exactly 270 electoral votes by winning 11 states: California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, and New Jersey.

Which seven states add up to 270 Electoral votes? I'm not seeing it, or (perhaps more likely) am misreading your point.

At least not since the Civil War.

Political axes rarely line up between countries. I'm reminded of my Canadian customers from my work in Vermont. The right-wingers would talk about our American healthcare system just like any American college student, but then they'd point out that their Canadian system would never work here "because of all the…