After Aurora: Can There Be an "Absolute" When It Comes to Gun Rights?

Andre Braugher could, but that's another topic for another day.)

I also don't buy much of the bullshit from these Internet commandos who contend that, had one of the movie goers been armed, he or she would've stopped accused shooter James Holmes, who was reportedly dressed in bulletproof armor and had filled the theater with thick plumes of gas before opening fire.

Just as a gun is helpful to have in some circumstances, isn't it also probable that there are those situations that are simply out of our control and where the smart play isn't to shoot through pepper gas amid crowded chaos but rather to try to duck and haul ass? After all, guns don't save people. People save people.

That said, Riley's right about the need for the nation's leaders to take up the gun-control issue somehow. Liberals have cowered too long, and emboldened conservatives use this fear to press stupid ideas like the elimination of background checks. But I think it needs to be a smart, nuanced conversation, not one dominated by muddy logic or shoddy definitions or knee-jerk emotionalism.

And as much as possible, it needs to be a conversation unencumbered by declarations about the "absolute."