Chemical Weapons and Gun Control

Jonah Goldberg explores the magical thinking on the left that connects the two seemingly disparate issues dominating the MSM’s headlines this year:

By making chemical weapons virtually the sole issue driving Syria policy, as a matter of logic, we make all the other issues non-issues. Killing your own people is okay, just so long as you kill them with the right weapons.

I’m sure someone else has noted this, but I’m struck by how similar this logic is to the case for gun control. When it comes to guns, the Left says the killer isn’t the issue. The issue is the means the killer used to kill. Get rid of guns and you’ll get rid of gun murders. Putting aside the constitutional and practical problems with this, it does make superficial sense. The problem, of course, is that you will still have murderers (and you will make it harder for potential murder victims to defend themselves).

Which leads to a topic explored by Jonah in another post at the Corner: “Can We Talk About Mental Health Now?”