ONE day after 14 people died and 21 were injured in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, America's Senate defeated a bill that would have prevented people on the terror watch list from buying guns. Making things a bit more difficult for people bent on killing Americans might sound like a rather moderate reform.

ONE day after 14 people died and 21 were injured in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, America's Senate defeated a bill that would have prevented people on the terror watch list from buying guns. Making things a bit more difficult for people bent on killing Americans might sound like a rather moderate reform.