The Regimen of Our Barbarous Ancestors

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

Thomas Jefferson, as quoted and inscribed on the Jefferson Memorial,

Washington, D.C. 

I feel like my brain is being sucked out by a vintage hairdryer

1. Why did I argue on Facebook with some members of my family about the Second Amendment and gun control laws?
2. Why did I bother when I knew perfectly well that their beliefs are nearly antithetical to my own?
3. Why did the shooter in Colorado have no problem buying more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition for his guns?
4. Why is there not unequivocal agreement that the above is INSANE?
5. Why was it easier for that guy to buy his guns and ammo than for me to petition my private insurance company to add an epilepsy drug to the formulary so that I can afford to give it to my disabled daughter?
6. Why don't I feel nearly as much terror about what happened yesterday in Colorado than in the newest statistics about global warming?
7. Why do people believe the NRA to be anything but a powerful business conglomerate interested solely in money and power?
8. Why do people insist that owning a firearm gives one the ability to defend oneself? From what?
9. Why is everything couched in military terms? 
10. Why don't I feel the same warm, fuzzy feelings about American "liberty," "freedom," and "values" as my relatives?
11. Am I a bad person for not thinking like them?
12. Are they bad people for not thinking like me?
13. Why are Christian conservatives so afraid?
14. Why am I not afraid?
15. Why do I get called a "libtard" if I question American exceptionalism?
16. Why in the recent spate of mass shootings did no one fire a gun in self-defense if this is an argument used by NRA types? Surely one or more of the nearly 50% of Americans who own firearms have been bystanders in the recent spate of killings.
17. Why is the United States ranked fourth in the world for murders by firearms after South Africa, Columbia and Thailand?
18. Why is Switzerland, with such high gun ownership rates, such a peaceful country?
19. Why does Switzerland's populace feel that since they are a wealthy country, it's their duty to protect the most vulnerable (the disabled) from birth to death?
20. Why do Americans believe that protecting the most vulnerable is tantamount to socialism, one of the world's greatest evils?
21. Why do people insinuate that I should just "love it or leave it?"
22. Why don't I just move to Switzerland?
23. Why does the United States account for 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's incarcerated population?
24. Why does posing these questions incite others to claim moral superiority over me with their faith in the status quo?

Reader, I'm certain you have answers to some of these questions and perhaps even some questions to add. 

Please do.