Gun-rights advocates sometimes argue that there's no point in having gun-control laws because people use, or might use, weapons other than guns to commit crime. The argument is absurd. It would make as much sense to argue that there's no point in trying to save people from dying of cancer because they might die of heart disease. Or that there's no point in trying to prevent people from dying in plane crashes because they might die in car crashes. Tens of thousands of Americans die each year as a result of gun violence. How many die from "knife violence" or "baseball bat violence?"