The murders two weeks ago at Virginia Tech naturally set off a cry in the usual quarters — The New York Times, the London-based Economist — for stricter gun-control laws. Democratic officeholders didn't chime in, primarily because they believe they were hurt by the issue in 2000 and 2004, but most privately agree.

What most discussions of this issue tend to ignore is that we have two tracks of political debate and two sets of laws on gun control. At the federal level, there ...

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