>>I suspect that cigarettes harmed more people here than guns have.
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>correct, but it is comparing apples and oranges, I guess. With cigarettes people know its unhealthy and they might be killing themselves slowly. IOW, people dying from lung cancer because of smoking are not innocent, as with guns this is another story.

Actually there might be more parallels here than one might think.

In both cases, a large portion of the population thinks they should be banned or at least be more sharply controlled, but powerful interests - the gun manufacturers and tobacco manufacturers - use money to influence policy-makers.

From today's NY Times..
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/01/business/international/us-chamber-works-globally-to-fight-antismoking-measures.html