The Least They Could Do

In light of the Worst Mass Shooting in U.S. History — and how long will Orlando hold onto that title? — the U.S. Senate seems about to do something about so-called assault weapons. What might they be doing? Not much. As Greg Sargent explains, it does not mean that if you're on the "No Fly" list, you can't buy a gun that would enable you to shoot dozens of people per minute. It means that if you've been investigated recently for suspicion of being a bad person, they might deny you that right.

Actually, they probably would deny you that right, erring on the side of caution. This would not be because you were an actual threat. It would be because someone, perhaps wrongly, thought you might be. This is a far cry from Due Process of Law and, of course, not something that might have stopped most recent mass murders. It's an even farther cry from actually banning those weapons, as was once done in this country with the approval of Saint Reagan. What may get passed strikes me as one of those laws that is worse than doing nothing because it will make people think something has been done.