Someone figured out that it is more important for legislators to appear to be doing something than actually doing something:

Did the assault ban stop Columbine?

Think again.

Of course, the madness at Columbine spurred new rounds of legislation at the state and national level, and that, truly, is why the assault ban is such a good example of legislation gone wrong. After Columbine, the Colorado legislature passed four gun-control measures. None of them, even supporters agreed, would have stopped the horrendous school killings, but they would have added to consequences for those who did the deed.

You can’t get much more consequential than death, but hey, at least the legislature did something.

And that, I suppose, is the lesson of the assault weapon ban.

It made us feel better.

You don’t say?

Posted in uncategorized on September 16th, 2004 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |