“Thus, even if we learned, say, that laws against child abuse did not, by themselves, reduce rates of child abuse, we would still have a strong ethical justification for keeping such laws on the books. Similarly, even if we could not show, for example, that laws banning private ownership of semi-automatic weapons actually reduced mass killings, a civilized society might still have sound ethical reasons for retaining these laws, as statements of its moral values.” – Ronald W. Pies, MD, Why Psychiatrists Must Confront Gun-related Violence [via Psychiatric Times]