There’s a lot to be said about school shootings. Jason Kottke said most of it today. One thing I want to add, though, is that pro-gun political groups not only fight for gun laws, they also do everything they can to prevent public health researchers from investigating the effects of gun ownership on society. The New York Times ran a story on this last year. When the I went back to look for that story recently, I noticed that the Times ran almost the same story back in 1995. People are entitled to their own philosophical views on the pros and cons of the firearms laws in this country, but it’s telling that pro-gun organizations work so hard to keep people from gathering data to use in the debate.