Rational conversations about gun control are difficult to come by.  Hyperbole as well as deliberate misstatements only lead to emotional tirades.  With this in mind, I will tread carefully toward illuminating the question posed by this article. In their 1997 paper titled "Of Holocausts and Gun Control," Daniel D. Polsby and Don B. Kates, Jr. note: The question of genocide is one of manifest importance in the closing years of a century that has been extraordinary for the quality and quantity of its bloodshed. As Elie Wiesel has rightly pointed out, 'This century is the most violent in recorded history. Never have so many people participated in the killing of so many people.' Yet: Contemporary scholars have little explored the preconditions of genocide. Still less have they asked whether a society's weapons policy [contributes] to the probability of its government engaging in some of the more extreme varieties of...(Read Full Article)