The Assault Weapons Ban Dies in the Senate

As predicted, the assault weapons ban is going nowhere. Ditto the ban on high-capacity magazines. Back in February, I proposed a Plan B on guns. Here it is again.

First: The president can direct the surgeon general to compile a scientific study of the health effect of individual gun ownership. …

The second step that might be taken -- again without the need for any congressional vote -- is for the Senate to convene hearings into the practices of the gun industry analogous to those it convened into the tobacco industry in the 1990s.