Earlier today, a 20-year-old
named Adam Lanza* entered
Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and killed 27
people—six adults, 20 school children, and himself. He also
killed his mother**. 

Americans are rightly horrified by the news, and many people are
calling for a fresh debate about America’s gun control policies.
Reason has been participating in that conversation for decades.

(*Based on news reports, we initially and erroneously
identified the shooter as 24-year-old Ryan Lanza. **The AP is

reporting that Lanza’s mother, who he also killed, was not
killed at the school, and may not have actually been a permanent
teacher there.)

Below are a collection of stories, editorials, and videos that
address the most common arguments for gun control, and the case for
preserving Americans’ Second Amendment rights: 

- Don’t
Let the Aurora Shooting Curtail the Right of Self-Defense: Even
if gun control could save one life—or a hundred—in one place, that
would not justify putting other people at the mercy of criminals
somewhere else.

–
Futile Remedies for Mass Shootings: The urge to find a
cure is powerful. As a rule, though, those that emerge are sugar
pills. 

– Outrage
Is Not an Argument: Politicians should resist demands to
do something about guns in response to the Aurora massacre.

- Controlling
Guns, Controlling People: A new history shows how gun
control goes hand in hand with fear of black people—and The
People.

–
The Second Amendment Goes to Court: Civil libertarians
respond to D.C. v. Heller (featuring Jacob
Sullum, Brian Doherty, Joyce Lee Malcolm, David B.
Kopel, Randy Barnett, Glenn Reynolds, Alan
Gura  Sanford Levinson).

–
Civil Rights and Armed Self-Defense: Understanding Clarence
Thomas’ concurring opinion in the gun rights case McDonald v.
Chicago.

– Gun
Control, Ad Infinitum: Gun control is something Americans
almost never stop talking about.

–
Gun Control’s Twisted Outcome: Restricting firearms has
helped make England more crime-ridden than the U.S.

Reason TV on the gun control debate: 

“Guns, Laws, and Panics: How Fear, Not Fact, Informs the Gun
Rights Debate”