Another school shooting. Another round of gun laws.

That's the way things seem to be playing out these days. Lots of people are calling for a bunch of new laws to restrict guns in one way or another.

And the U.S. Senate obliged them this week with some new gun laws.

But there are tons of laws already on the books.

Laws that restrict the sale of guns to anyone under age 18. Laws that restrict the sale of anything other than a shotgun or rifle to anyone under age 21. Laws that spell out who needs to have a license to sell firearms. There's a whole column of small print listing "prohibited categories of persons" who aren't allowed to purchase any firearms or ammunition. "Prohibited persons" include anyone convicted of a crime, drug users, anyone adjudicated mentally defective, illegal aliens, dishonorably discharged veterans.

All in all there are some 20,000 gun laws on the books.

With that many laws, one would think there would be lots of convictions. Not so.

In fact, the Clinton administration's track record when it comes to federal gun law convictions isn't that great. It's down from the previous administration.

It would seem with all the rhetoric and tough talk about guns that somebody would be enforcing the laws we already have along with making new ones. That doesn't appear to be the case.

But you know, I really don't think it would matter because gun laws, for the most part, simply don't work.

Do gun bans work? Congress has enacted a nationwide gun ban in every public school. Is it working?

Where has gun control worked? Washington, D.C.? Chicago? The places with the most restrictive gun laws have the highest rates of gun violence.

Gun control can actually endanger the lives of innocent people. The only person who would bring a gun into a gun-free zone like a school is a criminal. If you bring a gun in, you are a criminal.

In Pearl, Miss., in 1997, an assistant principal broke the law and saved the lives of who knows how many students. Assistant principal Joel Myrick broke the law by carrying a gun in school. But he also saved a bunch of innocent kids when he used the gun he carried to subdue a student who had already shot two students to death.

After the fact, this assistant principal looked like a hero. But before the bullets started flying, he would have been labeled a paranoid weirdo and lawbreaker if his colleagues or the cops had known he chose to carry a gun to school. And he probably would have been arrested.

Here are a few other things to think about in regard to the current opinion about guns in this country.

Fifty years ago, a larger percentage of America's teenagers had more access to firearms than they do today, but there were never any school shootings. If guns are the problem, why weren't there a batch of school shootings 50 years ago?

In fact, 50 years ago, thousands of high schools had shooting programs. Teenagers were taught how to shoot. They had guns in school as part of their curriculum. Why weren't there any school shootings when there were guns laying around the schools?

During those years, kids had ready access to firearms. Many kids even brought guns to school during hunting seasons so they could hunt on the way home. If guns are the problem, why weren't these kids shooting each other? There were guns all over the place.

No, I'm sorry. I refuse to believe that America's "gun culture" is responsible for these school shootings. Back in the 1950s there were almost no gun laws on the books and there were lots and lots of guns.

I think it's America's "politically correct culture" that should get most of the blame.

The highest court in the land tells us we can't have the Ten Commandments hanging on a school wall. Were they afraid some students might actually follow them? We have removed the Bible and prayer from the classroom. Secularism became the government-sanctioned de facto religion in America. In the 35 years since then there has been an explosion in prison population. Until recent years there has been an explosion in the crime rate. Illegitimate birth rates went up. Teen drug use and crime rates went up.

We've told parents that if they spank their kids, it's child abuse. Teachers and administrators have been handcuffed when it comes to discipline.

Children are not taught the difference between right and wrong anymore. We teach them situational ethics and moral relativism.

And when kids do screw up, the punishment rarely rises to the level of the offense. What kind of message does it send teens when they hear that the kids who shot up the school in Jonesboro, Ark., will be out of jail in a couple years?

We glamorize sex and violence. We have become a culture of violence.

No amount of gun laws will ever stop the shootings in schools because the problem in America isn't guns.

The problem is a lack morality. [[In-content Ad]]