The mayor is expected to demand registration of all handguns, mandatory training for gun owners and a limit of one handgun per person. This last novel idea comes from Corporation Counsel Mara Georges, who according to the Associated Press “says the court ruled people can have a gun for protection, but didn’t say they’re allowed more than one.”

Of course the First Amendment could be read to mean Rupert Murdoch is entitled to publish only one newspaper, not two. The Supreme Court, however, would not take such a cramped view of press freedom, and it may not put up with such gambits when it comes to gun rights, either…

If a ban proved irrelevant, how potent would less ambitious measures be? A registration requirement sounds innocuous but also pointless. To start with, it will be widely ignored. When Canada mandated one in 1995, there were an estimated 15 million guns in private hands. But apparently most evaporated, since fewer than 7 million are registered today.