There is no short answer to the question — one which is asked by almost every gun control advocate in the U.S.

It’s been eight months since I had the great opportunity to join the Ahwatukee Foothills News. Since that time we have not made radical changes to the paper or wild editorial changes to the product. What I wanted to do was listen to our readers and take note of any changes that would aid this great community.

I’d like to thank Bryan Brinkley (“Richardson’s arguments are absurd,” AFN May 3) for taking the time to respond to the “absurd” arguments in my many gun control articles.

"Had I known about the crime problems around Arizona State University I would have never let Kyleigh move to Tempe.” Those are the words of Karen Montenegro, the mother of murdered ASU student Kyleigh Sousa.

Did you catch The Rev. Jesse Jackson the other night on CNN demanding a Senate hearing into why regulators never cracked down on that gruesome abortion clinic in Philadelphia?

Bill Richardson’s views on the gun control debate get a frequent and wide airing in the AFN. Unfortunately, his arguments against stronger gun laws are absurd.

I enjoyed Dennis Tierney’s commentary (“Limiting magazine sizes just a step in trying to reduce gun violence,” AFN, March 31), which responds to my earlier commentary. His arguments appear thoughtful and completely reasonable.

When one thinks of the Holocaust film genre, dramas such as “Schindler’s List” and “The Pianist” instantly come to mind for their harrowing portrayals of victims and survivors who suffered at the hands of Nazis. But what about the German survivors – more specifically, the children of Nazi war criminals forced to come to terms with the atrocities of their parents? This is a question posed by the exceptional new German-language film, “Lore,” Cate Shortland’s follow-up to her acclaimed 2004 feature “Somersault.”

Student actors at Horizon Community Learning Center in Ahwatukee are presenting audience members with a different kind of play through next weekend.

I just read the article “Ahwatukee residents petition encourages ban on assault weapons” in the April 12 AFN.

Monday was the deadline for another column, and so right now I should be polishing up 500 words or so about why women do more housekeeping than men and bundling it off to the Ahwatukee Foothills News.

California has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. In addition to the over 9,000 federal gun laws, California has also enacted many laws at the state level, including ban on high-capacity magazines, ban on “assault weapons,” waiting period on gun purchases, an approved handgun list — handguns must be certified by the state before they can cross the state line, private party sales require transfer via a licensed dealer, identification of “gun free zones” and many others.

Hale Centre Theatre’s farcical stroll through Hitchcock’s thriller takes viewers on a journey through England and Scotland as hero Richard Hannay tries to clear himself of murder charges and find the real killer.

The media loosely throws around the word “sociopath.” Many people don’t understand what being a sociopath means. But, if recent studies are correct, 1 in 25 people are considered to be sociopathic. That tells us that most of us will meet several sociopaths in our lifetime. The goal is meet them, work with them, pray with them, but do not get into a relationship with them. Attempting to have a relationship with an emotionally unavailable person will ultimately be psychologically destructive.

Bill Richardson presents thoughtful perspectives on our national debate regarding gun control (“How is an illusion going to make us safer?,” AFN, March 22).

A House panel voted Wednesday to void parts of local anti-discrimination ordinances designed to give protections to transgendered individuals.

The FBI is now offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a man sought for a 2004 Ahwatukee Foothills robbery in which an armored car guard was killed.

I have read so many good books lately I couldn’t decide which one to review. It was a toss up between “The Obituary Writer,” by Ann Hood and “The Secret Keeper,” by Kate Norton (I don’t know about you but any title that contains the word “secret” draws me like a magnet — maybe it was that early Nancy Drew conditioning).

A spider crawls up the leg of 18-year-old India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) early in Park Chan-wook's English-language debut, "Stoker," and she regards it passively, intrigued.

I want to offer some points augmenting Bill Richardson’s demolition of gun restrictions (“Banning assault weapons will make us safer, AFN, Feb. 20).

Steven Spielberg's longtime cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski, already has won two Academy Awards for their collaborations on "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan," which are considered the director's masterpieces. Kaminski is nominated again this year for his work on Spielberg's "Lincoln," which features a signature look that they've captured together: a mystical sort of lighting, often streaking in from the outside and casting dramatic shafts.

To Mr. Don Kennedy and your Communist Party USA rants (“When the Communist Party USA cheers..., AFN, Feb. 8): Throughout your entire word salad about the so-called Communist machine at work to take our guns away, you never once mentioned the murders of the 26 people in Newtown, Conn. The 20 children who were gunned down; some of them hit multiple times.

‘One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? She asked. Where do you want to go? was his response. I don’t know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn’t matter.”

In the wake of all of the tragedies in the news recently, there’s a groundswell of support for tighter gun restrictions in order to protect our children.