Deaths and injuries from gun violence have been the focus of increasing attention in America. Examples pervade the media. A laid-off employee returns to his company to gun down former managers and co-workers. A troubled graduate student chases after his engineering professors and shoots them point blank. A thirteen-year-old boy, planning revenge against a female classmate for breaking up with him, goes on a shooting spree at school and kills four girls. Violent incidents involving guns make their impact on the general public and influence thoughts on personal safety and moral responsibility.

To some, such tragic events signal a disturbing era in which communication is lost and guns become a means to settle disputes. For other opponents of firearms, the fact that so many people, including children, have access to guns indicates that the potential for gun violence is...