Been with USPS for years now. Background checks are a way of life. About eight months ago, due entirely to a snafu at their end, the whole damn staff at my office had to jump through the hoops: driving record, background check, UA, and photo ID - on our dime (at least for the contractors). When I went to the clinic for the UA, there were about half a dozen other people there also waiting for UA's. That episode cost me over a hundred bucks.

A year or so prior to that, after a hack, they decided to update all our ID's. The bosset - a very attractive young gal in her late 20's - turned up with a camera and said this was happening *now*. The male employees grunted, checked the mirror in the break room to see if their hair was combed, and went 'whatever.' All the female employees stampeded to the bathroom to apply emergency makeup.

Couple years ago, the custodian of nearly 30 years retired. Postmaster put the job up on the relevant sites, with preference given towards veterans. A few weeks went by, six or eight made it through the preliminaries. Then all flunked the UA. Postmaster put the job up a second time, same conditions...and same result. Third try, Postmaster said he'd take anybody in a bureaucratic way. This time, our new custodian turned out to be a former assistant bank manager. Did a very good job, but after a year she became a clerk at another office. (She probably should have put in for a clerk spot to begin with.) Our current custodian is a younger guy with more tattoo's than skin. But he seems fairly decent.

As to gun deaths...a bit from way back. Homesteading in Alaska is rough. Way out in the woods, not so great gear, lots of work. Lots of booze floating around, lots of depression during long cold dark winters. For a very long time, policy with the local emergency services was to re-label obvious suicides (almost always death by gun) as 'accidental.' And there were a lot of them.

As to gun background checks and the issue pointed out with FA, a big part of the issue is the NRA went out of its way to neuter any sort of centralized database, ignoring polls of its own members in the process.