Most public disputes involve issues for which there is no obvious solution. If there were, it would have been taken already. Even our fractious politicians have been able to pluck the low hanging fruit. To reduce the number of innocent people slain by crazy gunmen (they have all been men/boys) should we tighten gun controls, liberalize institutionalization of the (probably) insane, or restrict violent games and movies or all or none of these. Any of these measures involve tradeoffs between safety and freedom. The preferred boundary shifts from time to time in the face of events and public sentiment. The following two articles are particularly insightful on this topic.
Charles Krauthammer: “The roots of mass murder” http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-the-roots-of-mass-murder/2012/12/20/e4d99594-4ae3-11e2-b709-667035ff9029_story.html
Warren's space 