We may be at a turning point in our society when it comes to guns but if so it’s going to be a wide curve. Firearms used to be very common and useful tools (for hunting and self defense). Schools used to have shooting clubs. Many people still appreciate the practical uses, the tradition, and the sport. More and more people don’t. And like CatBus said some pages ago (on the topic of ‘free range’ kids), we are far more risk averse as a society today than we used to be. When you have an increasing number of people who have never used a firearm and have no appreciation for them, more extensive gun control becomes possible.

We have long accepted that anyone may have children and that parents have fundamental rights to determine what is right for those children. There is some pushback in modern times regarding how much say parents should have on many topics, but we still accept the basic arrangement.

A big part of it this is practical: procreation doesn’t take much work and is difficult to control. But what if we could? What if the government had greater power to determine who procreates and determine what is in the best interest of all children? As it stands many thousands of children suffer terrible abuse in this country every year at the hands of their parents. We could put an end to much abuse if we did away with the idea that parents have fundamental liberty interests in raising their children. I wager few people like this idea precisely because child-having is so common and we think there are less intrusive ways to deal with the bad apples.