Over the weekend, The New York Times reported on Newtown residents' thwarted efforts to regulate guns earlier this year. One of our commenters wondered if she should take a firmer stance on gunfire in her neighborhood. Carmen Sandiego writes:

This article made me think about how I've been noticing random bouts of gunfire in the semi-distance where I live at in the evenings, over the past few months. I hadn't thought much on it, just rolled my eyes and hoped they were shooting at deer or something but now I wonder if I should complain. I don't think anyone should be shooting where I live in a subdivision, there are walkers, runners, children cutting through the woods, etc.

It's a scary thought—to consider that gunfire could ever become background noise in the first place. 

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David Wagner