Nick Gillespie: 4 Awful Reactions of Sandy Hook School Shooting—And Thoughts on a Better Response

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, filmmaker Michael Moore, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, crusading journalist Geraldo Rivera, and countless others immediately weighed in on the horrific mass shooting at Newtown, Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School. That they didn't seem to know what the hell they were talking about didn't occasion any humility on their parts.

Now President Obama is vowing "to take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this."

Reason's Nick Gillespie lays out the essential starting points that should inform all discussions of gun control and suggests

Acknowledging the horror of what happened and mourning for innocent lives snuffed out and families destroyed by the incomprehensible act of a madman is precisely what the country should be doing right now. If it seems as if that is a passive non-reaction, that's because too many people understand what mourning entails. After that can come a policy battle that can be fought with passion but not with emotionalism and ignorance of relevant, basic facts standing in for rational analysis and honest debate.