The relative quiet in marking the second anniversary of the nation's signature school shooting is a blessing and an abdication.
Hysteria is up, but school crime and violence are down.
They were, in fact, dropping throughout the 1990s. There is every reason to check the background of everyone purchasing a deadly weapon, no matter where. But the ritualized debate over gun shows has become its own sideshow. The Violence Policy Center, a research group that exposes the underbelly of the nation's gun culture, offers insight into why the gun-show sound bite is beside the point. The center recently examined high-profile shootings going back to the Kennedy assassination.