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There will always be these kinds of tradeoffs. Doing nothing is intolerable. But anything we do is also likely to prove intolerable. And people who back it will eventually face the same questions Biden hears now about 90s crime bills.
2. Statistics show that mass shootings are, as risks go, extremely rare. In today's moral atmosphere, it's taboo to say that. 20 years from now, people whose rights were violated by laws targeting mass shootings will cite those numbers to voters too young to recall the taboo.
3. That's how moral panics work: a problem, often a real one with a serious toll of deaths & ruined lives, becomes a "crisis"; "do something" acquires unstoppable rhetorical momentum. Whether or not the problem is solved, the momentum dissipates by the next generation.
4. This is not an argument for or against using the momentum of moral panics to pass laws; laws may be good or bad. It's an argument for recognizing when we're in one (so, proceed w/caution), & for understanding why previous generations acted as they did during one.
