From the attacks of 9/11 to Monday's school shooting, after every mass
murder there is an overwhelming urge to "do something" to prevent a similar
attack.

But since Adam ate the apple and let evil into the world, deranged
individuals have existed.

Most of the time they can't be locked up until it's too late. It's not
against the law to be crazy - in some jurisdictions it actually makes you
more viable as a candidate for public office.

It's certainly not against the law to be an unsociable loner. If it were,
Ralph Nader would be behind bars right now, where he belongs. Mass murder is
often the first serious crime unbalanced individuals are caught committing -
as appears to be in the case of the Virginia Tech shooter.

The best we can do is enact policies that will reduce the death toll when
these acts of carnage occur, as they will in a free and open society of 300
million people, most of whom have cable TV.

Only one policy has ever been shown to deter mass murder: concealed-carry
laws. In a comprehensive study of all public, multiple-shooting incidents in
America between 1977 and 1999, the inestimable economists John Lott and Bill
Landes found that concealed-carry laws were the only laws that had any
beneficial effect.

And the effect was not insignificant. States that allowed citizens to carry
concealed handguns reduced multiple-shooting attacks by 60 percent and
reduced the death and injury from these attacks by nearly 80 percent.

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