Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Saturday, December 4, 2021

Possible Progress On Gun Violence

 The arrest of the Crumbleys in connection with their son shooting up a school shows a way to begin to impact the scourge of gun violence. We are vanishingly unlikely to put into place legitimate efforts to prevent future mass casualty events, like registering and licensing guns and gun owners. 

However, guns are exempt from any number of normal liability laws. Not just the owners but the manufacturers and the retailers. If a bartender overserves a customer and they drive drunk and kill or injure someone, that bartender can be held liable. If someone leaves a literal loaded gun around the house, nothing.

That seems a small way forward. Like with police violence, at this point we are simply trying to hold people accountable for horrible actions. Actually preventing them is as effective as mask and vaccine mandates.

No comments: