There’s One Thing Republicans Get Right About Gun Control

In the wake of mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, the GOP has doubled down on its often-repeated gun mantras: “guns aren’t the problem, people are” and “gun control isn’t the answer to gun violence.” They’re right, albeit not in the way they mean. To effectively address violence in the most dangerous nation among industrialized countries, we must confront the fact that guns are a symptom of a deeper, underlying disease in the American public.

What is this disease? Public distrust.

One of the reasons that so many Americans...