I just returned from a trip to France, where I spent much of my time vainly trying to explain why we in the United States possess so many guns and use them to shoot each other so often.

I was frequently asked, “Does everyone have a gun in their home?”(They know we have as many guns as people, so it was a logical question.)

When I explained that not everyone owns a gun, that some people own 20 or 30 — people were dumbfounded.

Lost in all of the roar over gun control are the stories about people who survived some of the recent mass murders.

Take Ashley Moser, who was wounded in the Aurora theater shooting. Ashley was shot in the neck and paralyzed. Her 6-year-old daughter was shot dead that night in the theater, and Ashley lost a fetus soon after the shooting spree.

Let that sink in. No other industrialized nation in the world tolerates this type of slaughter.