Knee-Jerk Calls for More Gun Laws

In the face of horrors like the massacre in Connecticut, some people comfort themselves with bad arguments for more restrictions on gun ownership. Charles Cooke knows better.

The mind of a man so ill or depraved that he is capable of an atrocity such as we saw at Newtown is not one that can be constrained by law. Nobody refrains from shooting up a school because it is illegal.

Given the reported facts of this case, it is hard to imagine any new gun law that would have actually prevented Adam Lanza from committing this crime. He stole guns that were legally obtained and owned by his mother. He killed her and then he went on to kill 26 others. Any law that would have prevented this particular crime would have to make the private ownership of handguns completely illegal. If such a law were passed it would turn immediately turn millions of law-abiding gun owners into criminals. It would unconstitutionally impinge on every individual's right to protect himself and his family. It would leave guns only in the hands of criminals and the state. Such a law is a non-starter politically and constitutionality. This argument for outlawing handguns has been made and it has been lost. And it will lose again.