History by Magazine -- The cold truth about the impossibility of gun control
The Atlantic used to be trustworthy and brave, as this prescient column on the false promise of gun control proves. My weekly take on America's news, culture and ideas -- from exactly 30 years ago.
My column touting Atlantic’s long take on the impossibility of effective gun control also notes that the satire magazine Spy had died:
“Atlantic gives intellectual credibility to anti-gun-control arguments heretofore usually made only by mouthpieces at the National Rifle Association.
"Gun control laws don't work," says (then) Northwestern University law professor Daniel Polsby. (Polsby, now 78 and retired, in 1995 appeared on Ben Wattenberg’s PBS show “Think Tank.” He eventually became Dean and Professor of Law in the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.)
"What is worse, they act perversely. While legitimate users of firearms encounter intense regulation, scrutiny and bureaucratic control, illicit markets easily adapt to whatever difficulties & free society throws in their way. Also, efforts to curtail the supply of firearms inflict collateral damage on freedom and privacy interests that have long been considered central to American public life."