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But in a society that subjects drivers to more rigorous tests before they can operate an automobile than it does gun purchasers before they can buy a deadly firearm, such logic has its limits. It surely does not apply to semiautomatic assault rifles, which are unsuitable for either hunting or reasonable self-protection. Such steps as banning paramilitary weapons and instituting a uniform waiting period would not prevent hunters, target shooters, gun collectors or even ordinary citizens legitimately concerned with self-defense from buying weapons. They would merely make it a bit more difficult. In the process they might begin to slow, if not stop, the domestic arms race and avert the greatest danger of all -- that the every-man-for- himself atmosphere of an armed camp would erode the bonds of trust that keep a society from slipping into anarchy. Gun control is no panacea, but it might help forge a better society -- and if the U.S. cannot make progress in the wake of the Stockton massacre, when can it?