Face It: Guns Are Here to Stay  The horrific massacre in
Newtown, Conn., is reigniting the debate over guns — which must
begin with the realistic premise that there will never be a gun-
free America. Until we own up to this truth, we won’t get
anywhere.  An emotional revulsion toward guns inhibits
productive dialogue between gun-control advocates and their
opponents. For many gun-control supporters, a good world is one
where private ownership of guns is both unnecessary and illegal.
I have sympathy for the appeal of this ideal, but such a
daydream cannot guide our public policy.  There are
approximately 300 million guns in private hands in the United
States. Even if the government enacted a massive program to
confiscate these weapons, the feds would fail in their task and
frighten millions of Americans in the process.  And if they did
somehow manage to take away legal weapons? That would still
leave criminals happily armed.  We must simply accept the
inevitability of an America teeming with guns (to the chagr